Oscars 2023: India's ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ wins Best Documentary Short Film

One of India’s official entries to the Oscars this year, ‘The Elephant Whisperers’, has won the award for Best Documentary Short Film at the Oscars 2023. The film has been made by Kartiki Gonsalves and Guneet Monga. Besides this, ‘Haulout’, ‘The Martha Mitchell Effect’, ‘Stranger at the Gate’, and ‘How Do You Measure a Year’ were also nominated in the category. 

The 30-minute-long film focuses on the bond between an orphaned elephant Raghu and his caretakers – a couple Bomman and Bellie– who dedicate their lives to protect Raghu from poachers and raise him. The film is set in the Mudumalai National Park in Tamil Nadu and showcases the Indian tradition of environmental conservation. It was released on Netflix on December 8, 2022. 

Reacting on the Oscars win, Monga tweeted, "We just won the first ever Oscar for an Indian Production! Two women did this! I am still shivering (sic)."

Team RRR congratulated the team of 'The Elephant Whisperers' in a tweet. The tweet from the movie's official account read, "Congratulations to the entire team of The Elephant Whisperers on winning an Oscar for the best documentary short!! (sic)." The Elephant Whisperers producer Guneet Monga also posted a selfie with the RRR star Jr NTR. 

When the documentary was shortlisted for the Oscars in December 2022, Guneet Monga said the team is "beyond ecstatic" that a story about elephants and human beings co-existing in the same space has been nominated at the Oscars.

She was quoted as saying by India Today, “It’s an honour to be in the esteemed company of such diverse projects in the top 15 shortlisted films at the upcoming Oscars 2023. We are beyond ecstatic that ‘The Elephant Whisperers’, a story of elephants in South India and the indigenous communities that co-exist in the same space, has been shortlisted at the 95th Academy Awards for Best Documentary Short Film.”

Meanwhile, Shaunak Sen’s ‘All That Breathes’ lost out to ‘Navalny’ in the Best Documentary Feature Film. The three other nominees were ‘All The Beauty And The Bloodshed’, ‘Fire Of Love’, and ‘A House Of Splinters’. The Oscars this year are being hosted by comedian Jimmy Kimmel for the third time at the Dolby Theatres in Los Angeles, US.

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Watch | Oscars 2023: Guneet Monga, Kartiki Gonsalves: Meet the two women behind Oscar-winning documentary 'The Elephant Whisperers'