Academy Award Wining Free Solo

Nat Geo’s Rock Climbing Thriller wins the Oscar!!

An edge-of-your seat thriller and an inspiring portrait of an athlete who exceeded our current understanding of human, physical and mental potential, was awarded during the 91st Academy Awards with the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.   See below how Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Shannon Dill, and the climber Evan Hayes, accepted the their Golden Statue.

From award-winning documentary filmmaker E. Chai Vasarhelyi and world-renowned photographer and mountaineer Jimmy Chin, the directors of Meru, comes Free Solo, a stunning, intimate and unflinching portrait of free soloist climber Alex Honnold, as he prepares to achieve his lifelong dream; Climbing the face of the world’s most famous rock … the 3,200-foot El Capitan in Yosemite National Park … without a rope.

Celebrated as one of the greatest athletic feats of any kind, Honnold’s climb set the ultimate standard: perfection or death.

Free Solo is an edge-of-your seat thriller and an inspiring portrait of an athlete who challenges both his body and his beliefs on a quest to triumph over the impossible, revealing the personal toll of excellence. As the climber begins his training, the armour of invincibility he has built up over decades unexpectedly breaks apart when Honnold begins to fall in love, threatening his focus and giving way to injury and setbacks. 

Vasarhelyi and Chin succeed in beautifully capturing deeply human moments with Honnold as well as the death-defying climb with exquisite artistry and masterful, vertigo-inducing camerawork. The result is a triumph of the human spirit that represents what The New York Times calls “a miraculous opportunity for the rest of us to experience the human sublime.”

Succeeding in this challenge places his story in the annals of human achievement. Free Solo will premiere on National Geographic, DStv Channel 181 on Monday 4 March at 21:00 CAT.