Shaunak Sen’s globally acclaimed documentary ‘All That Breathes’ recently lost out to political documentary film ‘Navalny’ in what looked like a close contest at the 95th Academy Awards. Despite ‘All That Breathes’ arguably being the stronger Oscar contender among the two. The Oscar-nominated Indian film is now streaming in India on Disney+ Hotstar.
But Shaunak Sen’s Oscar dream can still be accomplished if the talented filmmaker takes a path previously taken by some of his Hollywood counterparts. In case you’re wondering what exactly we are suggesting, then continue reading.
Earlier, several Hollywood filmmakers have made some feature films which were actually based on or inspired from an existing documentary film. For instance, ‘Forrest Gump’ helmer Robert Zemeckis had directed a critically acclaimed film titled ‘The Walk’. It was inspired by the award-winning documentary ‘Man on Wire’, which was based on the real-life story of French high-wire artist Philippe Petit and his walk between the Twin Towers.
There was another film titled ‘Milk’ starring Sean Penn in the titular role of activist-politician Harvey Milk and it was released in 2008. The movie was inspired from the 1984 documentary ‘The Times of Harvey Milk’. The feature film ‘Milk’ bagged two Oscars (‘Best Actor’ & ‘Best Original Screenplay’) and even the documentary had previously won the ‘Best Documentary’ Oscar Award.
So, if the stakeholders of ‘All That Breathes’ could follow a similar approach and weave an intriguing narrative like that of Robert Zemeckis’ ‘The Walk’ and Sean Penn’s Oscar winning movie ‘Milk’, the Indian documentary can be adapted into a scaled-up feature film, which will have the potential to compete again for the Oscars, and who knows, even win it! Although we agree that adapting a documentary like ‘All That Breathes’ into a feature film format could be tricky, an ingenious filmmaker can make it possible.
If the idea of a documentary like ‘All That Breathes’ turning into a feature film still sounds far-fetched, then let us remind you that it was recently announced that another 2023 Oscar-nominated documentary film ‘Fire of Love’ is getting adapted into a feature film format by Searchlight Pictures. We think that the makers of ‘All That Breathes’ can follow suit and reignite its chances of winning an Oscar for India.