[imagesource: Netflix]

Last month, it was announced that My Octopus Teacher had made the Oscars shortlist for Best Documentary Feature.

That shortlist featured 15 potential winners, so whilst it was still a serious honour, there was a long way to go.

Fast forward to yesterday’s announcement of the Oscars nominations in each category, with the lists narrowed down to five, and the dream of taking home a statue just became a great deal more real.

Deadline spoke with Pippa Ehrlich, the director of My Octopus Teacher, who was understandably stoked at the news:

“I was surprised enough to jump about a meter and a half into the air,” Ehrlich tells Deadline of her reaction to the nomination. When we reached her she said she still didn’t quite have her feet on the ground.

“I’m half way back down to Earth now. It’s been quite an afternoon.”

No word on what Craig Foster, the man beneath the water, was up to when he found out, but I like to think he was snorkelling amongst the kelp forests at the time.

To win the biggest honour in documentary filmmaking, My Octopus Teacher will have to beat the four other nominees.

Let’s take a look at each of those.

Collective – Alexander Nanau and Bianca Oana

Collective tells the story of a devastating fire at a Bucharest nightclub in 2014 that claimed more than a dozen lives initially and then dozens more among burn victims who succumbed in hospitals to preventable infections.

Here’s the trailer:

Crip Camp – Nicole Newnham and Jim LeBrecht

For their film, directors Nicole Newnham and Jim LeBrecht drew from remarkable footage shot at [New Jersey’s Camp] Jened in 1971 that illustrated just how groundbreaking the camp was.

There, kids with disabilities were treated as people, not as broken objects without hope or purpose. Campers laughed, played, kindled romances and got to be themselves in an atmosphere of acceptance.

Another Netflix doccie in the running:

The Mole Agent – Maite Alberdi and Marcela Santibáñez

 The Mole Agent hails from Chile. Director Maite Alberdi’s amusing and touching film, which she calls a “documentary noir,” centers on an octogenarian amateur secret agent who went undercover to investigate conditions at an old folks home in Chile.

The trailer:

Time – Garrett Bradley, Lauren Domino and Kellen Quinn

The film centers on Fox Rich, an African-American woman from Louisiana who spent two decades trying to get her husband freed from prison after he received a draconian sentence of 61 years for armed robbery.

He was a first time offender but faced the prospect of spending the rest of his life behind bars.

Here’s that trailer:

A one in five shot at Oscars glory – I’ll take those odds.

The glitzy event will be held on April 25 in Los Angeles, and split between two venues – downtown LA’s Union Station and the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

That means there could be an in-person element to the awards. I vote Craig dons his snorkel for the red carpet, although a Speedo must be ruled out.

You can see the full list of all the Oscar nominees here.

[source:deadline]