Oscars 2021: Filmmaker, associate producer Swati Thiyagarajan celebrates win for My Octopus Teacher

My Octopus Teacher, which has Indian filmmaker Swati Thiyagarajan as associate producer and production manager, won the best documentary feature at the Oscars, which also honoured actor Irrfan Khan and costume designer Bhanu in its In Memoriam segment. Indian echoes at the 93rd Academy Awards, a social distancing event held in the shadow of the pandemic, were faint but distinct. “We won!!! Best documentary feature Oscar!!!,” Thiyagarajan, who has also written Born Wild: Journey into the Wild Hearts of India and Africa, tweeted after My Octopus Teacher bagged the Oscar. Check out the tweet here

The Netflix Original documentary, directed by Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed, documents a year spent by filmmaker Craig Foster and his unusual relationship with a female octopus in a South African kelp forest. Foster was also a producer via his involvement with the Sea Change Project while his wife Thiyagarajan was the production manager for the film.