The Tribeca Film Festival is in motion, and people from around the world are in New York celebrating film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Day 3 of the festival saw the world premiere of the new HBO Sports Documentary The Golden Boy featuring executive producers Mark Wahlberg and Mario Lopez and the ‘Golden Boy’ himself, Oscar De La Hoya.
The trio posed together at the Indeed Theater at Spring Studios. Directed by Fernando Villena and told in De La Hoya’s own words, the two-part docuseries features candid interviews with him and those closest to him, and rare archival footage.
Oscar’s girlfriend Holly Sanders was there to support him. They made sure to match with shimmering golden looks.
Oscar was an Olympic boxing gold medalist, and a multi-world title-winning professional boxer, by the age of 19. Nicknamed “The Golden Boy,” the hometown hero had a heartfelt story of winning Olympic gold for his dying mother, but he was hiding behind a facade.
“THE GOLDEN BOY peels back the layers of this celebrated yet complicated figure, exploring his triumphs and turmoil to reveal a man struggling to come to terms with lifelong demons and the impossible burden of a nickname he couldn’t live up to,” HBO writes in the synopsis.
“Everyone thought they knew me. It was just all a lie because that’s what I do,” De La Hoya, who is now 50, says at the start of the first episode.
Oscar told Variety ahead of it’s release, “I’ve faced the toughest individuals inside the ring throughout my whole life, but to be honest, to literally expose my feelings and my emotions was petrifying.” “I had to because it was a way for me to escape from the reality that I’ve been living for the last 45 years,” he added.
The documentary is covering everything, even the uncomfortable. He told the outlet he told Wahlberg and Lopez “to make this real.” “Ask the tough questions, and with the pictures that came out many years ago, I told them, I want you to hunt down that girl that leaked them and just get the truth,” De La Hoya said, referring to 2007 leaked photos of him in lingerie.
The two-part feature premieres July 24th on HBO, continuing on July 25th.