Russian doping documentary Icarus has become the first Netflix distributed film to win an Oscar award. Icarus has won the 2018 Academy Award in the Best Documentary (Feature) film category. This certainly marks a victory for the 1997 founded video-on-demand service, Netflix.
Icarus was nominated for the award alongside Abacus: Small Enough to Jail which revolves around migrants from China, Faces Places, Last Men in Aleppo, and Strong Island, which is also a Netflix production.
Icarus director Bryan Fogel accepted the award along with producer Dan Cogan at the Oscars 2018 ceremony held on Sunday in Los Angeles.
In his acceptance speech, Fogel said, “We hope Icarus is a wake-up call, yes about Russia, but in the importance of telling the truth, now more than ever.”
Fogel dedicated the award to the leading man Grigory Rodchenkov, who could not attend the award show as he is under the protective custody of the U.S. Department of Justice
“We dedicate this award to Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, our fearless whistleblower who now lives in great danger,” Icarus director said.
The director also praised Netflix during his speech. “Netflix has single-handedly changed the documentary world,” Fogel said. “It was a no-brainer decision. I’m honored that this is their film.”
Icarus basically focuses upon Fogel’s investigation into the use of performance-enhancing drugs by Russian athletes to compete in the Olympic Games. During the course of the investigation, Fogel met Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, the then-director director of Russia’s Anti-Doping Center. He then stumbled upon one of the biggest sports scandals.
The revelations made in the documentary film helped put Russia in the spotlight. It forced the International Olympic Committee to investigate the entire matter and ban Russia from participating in the 2018 Winter Olympics event, which was held last month in Pyeongchang, South Korea. However, many Russian athletes were allowed to participate as “Olympic Athletes from Russia.”
Netflix reportedly paid $5 million to acquire the film. The streaming service will release the documentary on Friday.
