SA’s ‘My Octopus Teacher’ just won the Oscar for Best Documentary

The South African documentary, My Octopus Teacher just won the Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category – merely weeks after receiving the Bafta award in the same category.

My Octopus Teacher wins Oscar

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.

“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 SA

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.

The Awards, which will also be rebroadcast at 22:30 on M-Net (DStv channel 101), was presented by acting and musical heavyweights Angela Bassett, Halle Berry, Zendaya and many more A-list celebrities.

OSCAR NOMINATIONS 2021: SEE THE FULL LIST

You can see the biggest winners of the Oscars over here.

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