What you need to know about ‘My Octopus Teacher,’ Oscars 2021’s best documentary

And the 2021 Oscar for documentary feature goes to … “My Octopus Teacher,” Netflix’s oddly moving look at the relationship that develops between a man and a cephalopod. But on a more universal level, I hope that it provided a glimpse of a different kind of relationship between human beings and the natural world.” Movies Here’s the complete list of 2021 Oscar winners “Nomadland” takes home the best picture, director and lead actress awards at the 2021 Oscars. Perhaps it doesn’t have the gravitas of fellow nominee “Collective’s” chronicle of journalists struggling against governmentally sanctioned healthcare corruption and incompetence or “Time’s” story of a woman trying to get her husband released from a 60-year prison sentence, but voters found it easy to immerse themselves in what “Octopus” offered: beautiful underwater cinematography and a unique view of the life of the sea creature. “The production heightens the familiar tropes of the nature-doc genre with its emotional account of a rare bond made between man and cephalopod — in this case, Craig Foster, a South African filmmaker, and a female octopus he encounters on his free dives into the freezing waters of the kelp forest in the Cape of Storms, outside Cape Town,” wrote Steve Dollar in a feature for The Times.