SA’s ‘My Octopus Teacher’ bags Oscar for best documentary

South Africa’s My Octopus Teacher won best documentary at this year’s 93rd Academy Awards (Oscars) on Sunday evening.

This year’s Oscar Awards were broadcast from the iconic Union Station in Los Angeles, USA.

The 2020 Netflix original documentary film directed by Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed was nominated in the best documentary category alongside The Mole Agent, Collective, Crip Camp and Time. 

Ehrlich and Reed both accepted the award on stage during the awards ceremony. Ehrlich said in her speech she was “utterly overwhelmed,” and that winning the award was “an honour we never dreamed possible”.

My Octopus Teacher is about filmmaker Craig Foster who spends a year forging a relationship with a wild octopus in a South African kelp forest near Simon’s Town on the Cape Peninsula in Cape Town.

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The documentary shows how the octopus opens up to Foster over time, forming a close bond with him and allows him into her world to see how she sleeps, lives and eats.

President Cyril Ramaphosa congratulated the production team in a personal letter he sent before the Oscar awards ceremony. In the letter, Ramaphosa commented how the documentary was “documentary story telling at its best”.

The documentary has been a viewers favourite since its release. It has won 20 international awards, two of which are the Producers Guild of America Award for best documentary motion picture 2021 and the British Academy Film Awards for best documentary 2021.

My Octopus Teacher has received much love and positive reactions from viewers all over the world. Here is what some viewers on Twitter had to say:

“My Octopus Teacher” left me inconsolable for a week after watching it. It absolutely shattered me — I’m glad it won

— Marcie Bianco (@MarcieBianco) April 26, 2021

I full out sobbed. Spectacular film. https://t.co/dGqNyxwHNr

— Laurie B. (@RevLaurieinLex) April 26, 2021

The film I loved most this year is
MY OCTOPUS TEACHER

— William Friedkin (@WilliamFriedkin) April 25, 2021