‘My Octopus Teacher’ gets an Oscar nomination

The South African documentary My Octopus Teacher, has been flying the South African flag super high with international recognitions and dubs, and a nomination at the Oscar Awards.

The Netflix Original Documentary is about the filmmaker Craig Foster who went out to dive in a cold underwater kelp in False Bay, near Cape Town. Foster decided on documenting his diving experience, and over time met the octopus that had caught his attention. The filmmaker spent a year visiting the den where the octopus stayed, tracking her movements and forging a relationship with her.

My Octopus Teacher produced by Foster and directed by Pippa Ehrlich was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Documentary Feature category. The documentary was nominated alongside Collective, Crip Camp,  The Mole Agent, as well as Time.

The announcement was made on Monday afternoon during the livestream event of the Oscar nominations, and was later tweeted by The Academy on their official Twitter page.

The South African Afrikaans film Toorbos, produced by Rene van Rooyen was also submitted this year for review by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, but was unfortunately not nominated.

In 2004, the South African film Yesterday was nominated for an Academy Award. The Zulu film directed by Darrell Roodt did not win an Academy Award, but did win many other awards such as the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Makeup (2005), the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Editing  (2005), the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Sound (2005), an the Peabody Award (2006).

The internationally loved film Tsotsi, produced by Gavin Hood won an Academy Award in 2006 for International Feature Film. The film also won many other awards such as the Golden Horn Award for Best Actor in a Feature Film (Presley Chweneyagae, 2006), Golden Horn Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Feature Film (Terry Pheto, 2006), Golden Horn Award for Best Achievement in Cinematography in a Feature Film (Lance Gewer, 2006), and many more.

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