Whose story? New Oscar nominated film September 5 evokes the tension and dilemmas of live crisis reporting

How a TV sports crew found itself live screening the 1972 Olympics attack, and wrestling with a cascade of moral and logistical challenges that would change news coverage for ever.

• In cinemas February 6

In a darkened broadcasting control room, a team of sports journalists covering the 1972 Munich Olympics for ABC television realise to their horror that they have been thrust entirely unprepared into covering a terrifying global news event: a hostage crisis in the Olympic village that would come to be known as the Munich massacre.

The Munich Games were already a broadcasting landmark: the first time people on five continents could watch the Olympics live. But it also became the first time a terrorist attack would unfold live in front of a global television audience in real time, with all the ethical and practical dilemmas that entailed. The journalists’ predicaments and groundbreaking efforts are depicted in September 5, a new film that provides a fresh perspective on the production and consumption of news content.

From left, Peter Sarsgaard as Roone Arledge, Ben Chaplin as Marvin Bader and John Magaro as Geoff Mason