Welcome to BAMslam (plus, the Greatest Ping-Pong Moments in Film History)

After descending into the dark night of the soul with movies like the pitch-black Williamsburg satire The Comedy and the nursing-home documentary The Patron Saints, you can count on a sweaty round of ping-pong with cine-friends to lighten the mood. This great pastime—which, according to our research, evolved from an 1880s British parlor game known as “wiff-waff” into the world’s most popular racquet sport—will be one of several amusements offered in this year’s BAMcinemaFest Lounge, the others being drink specials, live music, and a stand-up comedy showcase. We expect the special festival balls we’re getting manufactured will also add to the fun.

But what do these small, cinematically unheralded balls have to do with the art of film, you ask? If that photo of young, hunky Paul Newman and Robert Redford isn’t enough to convince you, below we’ve gathered three of the great ping-pong scenes in cinema history—one from American comedy’s favorite curmudgeon, another from one of the best films of Britain’s finest filmmaking duo, and—last but not least—one of the most popular Best Picture Oscar winners of all-time.

Join us this Saturday, June 23, for the First Annual BAMslam finals and semi-finals at 6pm. BAMcinemaFest alumnus Michael Tully (Septien) will be serving as tournament director.

W.C. Fields in You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939)

Kim Hunter and Roger Livesay in A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump (1994)