Nyad

This is a fascinating biopic about a woman who embodies the power of sheer determination. In their first narrative feature, married filmmakers Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi -- known for documentaries Free Solo and The Rescue -- use their ability to shine a light on audacious perseverance to create a movie that parents and coaches can use to show tweens and teens that "can't" is sometimes a nonsense word. (At this point, it seems fair to say that these two are obsessed with proving that nothing is impossible.)

Despite able assistance from other talented folks -- Foster, Bening, composer Alexandre Desplat, cinematographer Claudio Miranda, and editor Christopher Tellefsen -- the filmmakers didn't make this project easy on themselves. Swimming isn't a cinematic sport: Swimmers' faces are often in the water or hidden by gear, and there's not a lot of talking. Chin and Vasarhelyi also chose to embrace the difficult side of Nyad's personality instead of just highlighting the charisma that's given her a career in sports broadcasting. Like true documentarians, the duo don't tell viewers what to think about Diana Nyad: They show us why she is who she is, how her challenges fueled her, and the motivation behind her drive to succeed. Nyad is fully dimensional, and first-time feature writer Julia Cox boldly depicts a female athlete who gets pretty far because she's doggedly and sometimes unpleasantly insistent -- a trait often met with more acceptance in a man. Society is still grappling with accepting tough women who don't feel the need to smile when they're in the trenches, and perhaps Nyad is a step in showing that accomplished women should be allowed to be imperfect, too.