EXCLUSIVE: WME has signed James Reed, the co-writer and director behind My Octopus Teacher, Netflix’s first original documentary from South Africa that is up for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar. It follows Foster as he free-dives in a cold underwater kelp forest in South Africa and develops a relationship with a wild common octopus and documents a year in the unusual friendship.
The pic debuted in September last year and has since won more than 20 international awards, including the Wildscreen Golden Panda, Jackson Hole’s Grand Teton, the IDA’s Pare Lorentz, and a PGA Award. Reed is nominated for the Oscar alongside co-director Pippa Ehrlich and producer-narrator Craig Foster. Also, Reed and Ehrlich picked up DGA Award nom for Outstanding Directorial Achievement In Documentaries.
Reed’s other credits include writing and directing the 2017 docu, Rise of The Warrior Apes, which he produced with Keo Films for Discovery. He also wrote and directed the 2015 Netflix documentary Jago: A Life Underwater.
