Shaunak Sen's Indian documentary feature All That Breathes did not win the Oscar for the Best Documentary Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards on Monday. It lost out to CNN’s Navalny, the documentary film about Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who was poisoned in an assassination attempt in 2020.
Set in Delhi, Shaunak’s documentary follows two brothers who have devoted their lives to rescuing and treating injured birds, especially black kites. Before the Oscars, All That Breathes had already won top prizes at prestigious film festivals such as Cannes, and Sundance Film Festival. The documentary feature, now acquired by HBO, was competing against All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Fire of Love, and A House Made of Splinters besides, Navalny.
This is the second upset for India in the category-- last year Writing With Fire lost out to Questlove's Summer of Soul (Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised). Writing With Fire was the first Indian feature documentary to be nominated for an Academy Award.
