Thursday on TV: Lions and <em>Nickel Boys</em> <em>Playing Attack</em>

Le Mans'66: The Duel AXN Movies, 9:10 p.m.

Matt Damon and Christian Bale take on the lead roles in James Mangold's Oscar-winning film based on true events. In the 1960s, when Ferrari gained prominence in the US, Ford realized it had to recreate its image and hired a team willing to compete.

Nickel Boys Prime Video, streaming

One of this year's nominees for the Oscar for best film is being released directly on streaming, bypassing the cinema. Set in 1960s Florida, it tells the story of two African-American kids – played by Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson – in a reformatory with abusive practices.

The film is also nominated for the Golden Statuette for Best Adapted Screenplay, written by RaMell Ross (the director) and Joslyn Barnes. It is based on the novel by Colson Whitehead, which earned the American author his second Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2020 (the first was for The Underground Railroad, which was adapted into a series).

Su Majestad Prime Video, streaming

The premiere of a Spanish comedy created by Borja Cobeaga and Diego San José, in which Anna Castillo (Goya for breakthrough actress for her role in the film My Grandfather's Olive Tree) plays Pilar, the young princess and heir to the Spanish throne who has to take on royal duties when the king retires due to a scandal. Will she, with her free, impatient and festive spirit, be the ideal choice to save the monarchy's reputation?

Play Attack Netflix, streaming

Premiere. Here too, a no-nonsense woman unexpectedly rises to a serious and high position in the family hierarchy, following a controversy. But the star of the cast is Kate Hudson and the position is the leadership of the family company, which manages a professional basketball team in Los Angeles. Elaine Ko, Mindy Kaling, Ike Barinholtz and David Stassen are the creators of this sports comedy in which actors Gordon Drew Tarver, Scott MacArthur and Brenda Song also appear.

Brothers Among Lions RTP2, 4:08pm

Directed by Beth Brooks in 2020, this nature documentary is a survival story embodied by Ziggy and Prince, two lion cubs who survived a bloody fight for dominance within their pride. They are only one year old. They are in the care of Rosa, their mother, and their aunts. Without the protection of the pride, they are particularly vulnerable, including to attacks by adult lions. But Rosa is determined not to lose another cub.

Murder in the Sky: Who Shot Down MH17? National Geographic, 10:52 p.m.

On 17 July 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was en route from Amsterdam (Netherlands) to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) when it was shot down by a missile in eastern Ukraine. It was carrying 298 passengers and crew. There were no survivors. In 2022, a court in The Hague sentenced three men (two former Russian secret agents and a Ukrainian separatist leader) to life imprisonment for murder in the destruction of the Malaysian airline's Boeing 777.

This series documents the investigation in three episodes – The Disaster, The Murder Weapon and The Guilty – to be seen weekly starting this Thursday.

RTP2 , 11:08 p.m.

With the subtitle The macabre story of the greatest Portuguese serial killer, this film by Ricardo Clara Couto profiles the woman who brutally killed more than 30 babies left in the “foundling wheel” in Coimbra, in order to keep the 600 reis and other benefits given to those who looked after the children. Luiza de Jesus (1748-1772) was sentenced to a slow, painful and public death. She was the last woman to be executed in Portugal.

Her story, narrated here by Maria do Céu Guerra, is told with contributions from several experts, all women. Among them are historian Maria Antónia Lopes, criminologist Tânia Konvalina-Simas, investigative journalist Anabela Natário, actress Maria Henrique, who played the child killer in a play that was performed four years ago at the Teatro da Trindade (Lisbon), and writer Rute de Carvalho Serra, author of the book A Assassina da Roda and the text of that same play.