The South Africa Netflix documentary My Octopus Teacher has won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature at the 93rd Academy Awards Ceremony in Los Angeles.
The 2020 Netflix original by Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed documents a year spent by filmmaker Craig Foster forging a relationship with a wild, common octopus in a South African kelp forest in False Bay near Cape Town.
Filmmakers James Reed and Pippa Ehrlich accepted the honour.
“I know there are many South Africans who are awake in the middle of the night to watch this ceremony and in many ways, this really is a tiny personal story that played out in a sea forest at the very tip of Africa. But on a more universal level, I hope that it provided a glimpse of different types of relationships between human beings and the natural world.”
Reed has called the win an honour and thanked the Academy and family for their support.
He also made special mention of the subject of the film, South African Craig Foster, who formed an underwater bond with the Octopus.
“A final extra thank you for Craig who, while it was such an enormous team making this film in the end, it sort of began and ended with him and it’s his story and he kind of showed us that if a man can kind of form a friendship with an octopus, it does sort of make you wonder what else is possible, so thank you Craig and cheers everyone.”
The documentary has already scooped a number of awards in 2020 including two wins at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards for Best Science/Nature Documentary and Best Cinematography.
It also scooped the Grand Teton Award at the Jackson Wild Media Awards where it received 8 nominations. It also won the Best Feature Film Award at the EarthX film festival.
In the video below, “My Octopus Teacher” nominated for Oscar award:
