Indian filmmaker Kartiki Gonsalves’s The Elephant Whisperers has bagged the Academy Award for best documentary short film. The film follows a couple, Bomman and Bellie, who adopt two orphaned elephants in Tamil Nadu’s Mudumalai reserve forest. The 95th Academy Awards ceremony, popularly known as the Oscars, was held on Sunday, March 12, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
Accepting the award, director Kartiki said, “I stand here today to speak for the sacred bond between us and our natural world. For the respect of indigenous communities, and empathy towards other living beings we share our space with. And finally for coexistence." She further thanked the Academy for recognising their film, which highlighted the lives of indigenous people and animals. "To Netflix for believing in the power of this film. To Guneet, my producer, and my entire team, and finally, to my mother, father, and sister who are up there somewhere. You are the centre of my universe. To my motherland India," she added. Producer Guneet Monga also went on stage to accept the award.
Through the tale of how Bomman, Bellie, and their two elephant babies became a family, the 39-minute film showcases the depth of the bond between humans and animals. This was a directorial debut for Kartiki, who previously worked as a natural historian and social documentary filmmaker and photojournalist. In an interview with The Hindu, she said that she wanted people to understand the intelligence of elephants through the story of Raghu, the first elephant Bomman and Bellie rescued. “The most special thing about the story is the unusual family dynamic Bomman and Bellie share with Raghu,” she said.
The film was in the running with four other short documentaries — Haulout, How Do You Measure A Year?, The Martha Mitchell Effect, and Stranger At The Gate.
The other Indian documentary that was nominated, All That Breathes directed by Shaunak Sen, however, lost out on the Oscar for the best documentary feature film. The award instead went to Navalny directed by Daniel Roher, about former Russian presidential candidate Alexei Navalny.
All That Breathes has had a spectacular run in the international film festival circuit, bagging awards at the prestigious Cannes and Sundance film festivals. It is a narrative documentary on two brothers in Delhi — Nadeem Shehzad and Mohammad Saud — who rescue black-specked kites in the city. While the film focuses on their rescue efforts, it also addresses politics, history, religion, and the social fabric of Delhi. All That Breathes is the second Indian film to be nominated for an Oscar in the best documentary feature film category, after Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s An Encounter With Faces in 1978.
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Fire of Love and A House Made Of Splinters were the other features nominated in the category.
India saw an exciting run-up to the 2023 Academy Awards as three Indian movies were nominated for awards in different categories. Apart from the two documentaries, the hugely popular song ‘Naatu Naatu’ from the hit Telugu film RRR was nominated for best original song.
The Oscars were hosted by American TV personality Jimmy Kimmel this year, with actors from across the world — including Deepika Padukone — presenting awards in the 23 categories.