Monday, April 26, 2021

'My Octopus Teacher' wins Documentary Feature at the Oscars



I announced my plan for today in the footnote to Seth Meyers and Vox take closer looks at D.C. statehood for Flashback Friday.
I still plan on writing this post Monday in anticipation of "My Octopus Teacher" winning Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars the night before. Stay tuned and may I not be disappointed.
I was not disappointed. Watch MY OCTOPUS TEACHER Accepts the Oscar for Documentary Feature from ABC now, the Oscars later.*

Watch Pippa Ehrlich, James Reed and Craig Foster accept the Oscar for Documentary (Feature) for MY OCTOPUS TEACHER at Oscars 2021.
Congratulations! Ever since my readers expressed their love for this movie last November, I knew that "My Octopus Teacher" had a good chance of winning if it was nominated, a story I'll tell in more detail over the jump. After it won at the Producers Guild Awards and BAFTA Awards, I realized that it was the favorite. I'm glad it lived up to my expectations, unlike some other nominees, a story I'll tell in future installments of this series.

Since this is the first of my posts about the Oscar winners, I'm commenting on the socially-distanced in-person setting. I think this was the best compromise between safety and entertainment the Motion Picture Academy could achieve. The result resembled a less tipsy Golden Globes. Since the Hollywood Foreign Press Association held those remotely, the Oscars tried to fill the gap. From a viewer's perspective, the setup succeeded. I'll wait to see if it really kept everyone healthy.

Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed had more to say in MY OCTOPUS TEACHER's Thank You Cam Speech: Documentary (Feature), again from ABC now, maybe the Oscars later.

Watch Oscars 2021 winner Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed's Thank You Cam Oscar acceptance speech for Documentary (Feature) for MY OCTOPUS TEACHER.
I can tell Ehrlich was still a bit nervous after her first acceptance speech. I hope she gets used to it, as I'm sure that "My Octopus Teacher" will be nominated at the Environmental Media Association Awards and one of the Emmy Awards, either Creative Arts or News and Documentary, and will likely win at least one trophy at each.

Ehrlich was much calmer when she faced the press in Variety's 'My Octopus Teacher' Documentary Directors on Filming Their Underwater Oscar Winner.

Following a man who forms a bond with an octopus inhabiting a kelp forest, 'My Octopus Teacher' won the Oscar for Best Documentary at the 93rd Academy Awards. Backstage, Directors Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed describe their hope that audiences embrace their message: that humanity find more "hopeful and respectful way of engaging with the planet".
Ehrlich gave exactly the kind of environmental message about the documentary at the end of the press conference that I was hoping for. Kudos not only to her, but also the reporter from Univision who asked for a response related to Earth Day. That was a smart question. Thank you.

Follow over the jump for the story of how 'My Octopus Teacher' wins Best Science/Nature Documentary and Best Cinematography at the 2020 Critics' Choice Documentary Awards earned its page views, along with other top entertainment posts about movies and television during the tenth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News; I covered music under holidays in Broken Peach celebrating Halloween updates holidays for the tenth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News for Flashback Friday.


'My Octopus Teacher' wins Best Science/Nature Documentary and Best Cinematography at the 2020 Critics' Choice Documentary Awards from November 25, 2020 earned 1151 raw page views by March 20, 2021, enough for it to be the eighteenth most read entry and the twentieth most read entry overall according to raw page views. However, it had fewer than 633 default page views, so it didn't rate according to that statistic, which is why it didn't appear among the top twenty posts for 2020. Even so, it had a lot of readers, as I wrote in 'Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution' at the Critics' Choice Documentary Awards.
I wish them both good luck with this film. They will need it to overcome the popular sentiment behind "My Octopus Teacher," should it be nominated. My entry about it went viral through other people sharing it on Facebook. Right now, it has 93 Facebook shares and 552 default and 557 raw page views. In addition, all the comments I've seen and received about "My Octopus Teacher" have been overwhelmingly positive in a way I almost never see. If both of those accurately reflect how the general public feel about the movie, then I think it will be a strong contender if it's nominated for an Oscar.
I wrote that on November 29. By 7 P.M. the next day, the entry earned 565 default and 568 raw page views from basic social media promotion, including a tweet that earned five engagements (three detail expands, one like, and two replies in one thread) on 101 impressions, plus going viral on cephalopod group on Facebook to rank tenth overall and eighth among entries posted during November 2020. I promoted the entry via social media again in December, then shared it on the Coffee Party USA Facebook page, both of which earned it another 466 default and 495 raw page views to rank eleventh according to default page views and tenth according to raw page views during December 2020. The graph above shows the three peaks in readership, followed by a long tail of visitors viewing the post. The entry has continued to attract readers since March 20, 2021, as the graph above displays ~1180 total raw page views as of this morning, when I took the screenshot. Now that "My Octopus Teacher" has won an Oscar and I'm linking to the entry, I'm expecting more page views.


Science fiction speaks to our current anxieties from August 3, 2014 had the most comments of any entry last year with 70 thanks to the usual crew of aggressive and persistent spammers. The post was the most commented on entry during July 2020 with ten, August 2020 with twelve, and September 2020 with sixteen, tied for most commented on during December 2020 and January 2021 with four each, and was the second most commented on entry during October 2020 with six. The entry ended the tenth year of this blog with 148 comments and currently has 150, the most of any entry in the blog's history.


Entertainment for the sixth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News from April 23, 2017 tied for third most comments overall with 10 comments, again because of the usual crew of aggressive and persistent spammers.



Alignment charts from the back catalog for Throwback Thursday with music by the Harp Twins from April 23, 2020 was the most saved pin from the tenth blogging year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News with three, one save each during July 2020, January 2021, and February 2021.


One of the posts I covered in the above entry was 'Star Wars' alignment charts from August 16, 2015 earned an honorable mention, as its raw page view count rose to ~6,170, enough to place it just out of the all-time top twenty after earning 577 raw page views during the tenth year of this blog.


'Hamilton' — an American musical for the July 4th weekend from July 5, 2020 was the only pin saved of an entry posted during July 2020 and the other pin saved from the then-current blogging year during July 2020. It tied for second most saved pin of an entry posted during the tenth year of this blog.


'John Lewis: Good Trouble' wins Best Historical/Biographical Documentary at the 2020 Critics' Choice Documentary Awards from November 20, 2020 was the only pin saved from the then-current blogging year and November 2020 with 1 save. It also tied for second most saved pin of an entry posted during the tenth year of this blog.

Any post of mine that features alignment charts isn't complete without a fan cover of one of the theme songs of the featured shows, so I'm sharing Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme) for 8 cellos from Samara Ginsberg.

Imperial March from Star Wars arranged and performed for 8 cellos by Samara Ginsberg
If you were expecting the Harp Twins, don't worry. I plan on using them when I write my retrospective about Pinterest. Remember, I'm environmentalist, so I conserve my resources.

That's it for today's retrospective. I'll have the next one on Throwback Thursday. In the meantime, stay tuned for more entries about the Oscar winners.

*ABC hosts clips of the ceremonies for a couple weeks, then takes them down when the Oscars uploads them or their equivalents to their YouTube channel for posterity. When that happens, I'll update the embeds.

Previous posts in this series Retrospectives from previous years about entertainment.
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