Icy ordeal inspires on Oscar night

The March of the Penguins crew can celebrate their Best Documentary Feature win. Picture / Reuters

A film about the trials of emperor penguins struggling to survive in Antarctica has won the Oscar for best documentary.

The award caps a triumphant 12 months for Luc Jacquet's film March Of The Penguins, which has already drawn 16 million cinemagoers worldwide, becoming the most successful French film abroad in the past decade.

The penguins' lonely journey to find a mate and then raise a single chick against the odds has touched a common nerve of love and fragility.

The birds' human-like stoicism during their treacherous annual mating ritual transformed the small wildlife documentary, shot over 13 months and narrated by actor Morgan Freeman, into a nail-biting drama.

"The film touches on a universal emotion," Jacquet says.

But what he set our to capture was the penguins battle to survive rather than human themes of love and loneliness. In combining both, he highlights their extreme fragility. "They make this incredible journey, and then everything can fall to pieces in an instant."


The complete list of winners of Academy Awards at the 78th annual Oscars ceremony:

Best Picture Crash (Paul Haggis and Cathy Schulman; producers, Lionsgate)

Director - Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain (Focus Features)

Lead Actor - Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote (United Artists/Sony Pictures Classics)

Lead Actress - Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line (20th Century Fox)

Supporting Actor - George Clooney, Syriana (Warner Bros Pictures)

Supporting Actress - Rachel Weisz, The Constant Gardener (Focus Features)

Adapted Screenplay - Brokeback Mountain (Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana; Focus Features)

Original Screenplay - Crash (Paul Haggis & Bobby Moresco; story by Paul Haggis; Lionsgate)

Foreign Language - Tsotsi (Gavin Hood, director; Miramax Films; South Africa)

Documentary Feature - March of the Penguins (Luc Jacquet, Yves Darondeau; Warner Independent Pictures)

Documentary Short - A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin (Corinne Marrinan, Eric Simonson)

Original Score - Brokeback Mountain (Gustavo Santaolalla; Focus Features)

Original Song - It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp from Hustle & Flow (Jordan Houston, Cedric and Paul Beauregard; Paramount Classics)

Animated Feature - Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit (Nick Park and Steve Box; DreamWorks)

Animated Short Film - The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation (John Canemaker, Peggy Stern)

Film Editing - Crash (Hughes Winborne; Lionsgate)

Art Direction - Memoirs of a Geisha (John Myhre, Gretchen Rau; Columbia Pictures, DreamWorks SKG)

Cinematography - Memoirs of a Geisha (Dion Beebe; Columbia Pictures, DreamWorks SKG)

Costume Design - Memoirs of a Geisha (Colleen Atwood; Columbia Pictures, DreamWorks SKG)

Live Action Short Film - Six Shooter (Martin McDonagh; Sundance Film Channel)

Makeup - The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Howard Berger, Tami Lane; Walt Disney Pictures)

Sound Editing - King Kong (Mike Hopkins, Ethan Van der Ryn; Universal Pictures)

Sound Mixing - King Kong (Christopher Boyes, Michael Semanick, Michael Hedges, Hammond Peek; Universal Pictures)

Visual Effects - King Kong, (Joe Letteri, Brian Van't Hul, Christian Rivers, Richard Taylor; Universal)

- REUTERS