The heartwarming documentary My Octopus Teacher has taken the Oscar home for the best documentary at this year’s Academy Wards. This follows their triumphant win at the Bafta awards a few short weeks ago.
The documentary, which was produced by Craig Foster and directed by Pippa Ehrlich and award-winning filmmaker James Reed, tells the story of Foster, suffering from a loss of purpose, who begins a daily diving regimen in the freezing kelp forests at the tip of Africa in order to re-energize himself.
“What he discovers below the water’s surface is a totally alien motivation in the form of an unusually curious octopus,” it reads on Netflix. “This beautiful record of an animal’s entire life -something seldom achieved in the wild, let alone underwater – was shot over a full year and explores the habits and personality of a strange, undulating creature that most of us have only ever eaten.
“My Octopus Teacher grabs you with all eight arms and changes its camouflage – showing you colours and textures you’ve never seen before.”
“An immersive portrait of human-animal understanding, brimming with danger, drama and devastating emotion, My Octopus Teacher grabs you with all eight arms and changes its camouflage – showing you colours and textures you’ve never seen before.”
A first for South Africa
It is said that My Octopus Teacher’s Oscar nod in this particular category is a first in South Africa.
My Octopus Teacher competed against documentaries such as Collective, Crip Camp, The Mole Agent, and Time. The Oscars ceremony took place during a glitzy event to announce the winners on 25 April 2021. After being delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Oscars ceremony took place two months after it was scheduled and was treated as a film production in which audience members did not have to wear masks.
Original source: https://www.thesouthafrican.com