March of the Penguins

March of the Penguins (French La Marche de l'empereur ; ) is a 2005 French feature-length nature documentary directed and co-written by Luc Jacquet, and co-produced by Bonne Pioche and the National Geographic Society. The documentary depicts the yearly journey of the emperor penguins of Antarctica. In autumn, all the penguins of breeding age (five years old and over) leave the ocean, which is their normal habitat, to walk inland to their ancestral breeding grounds. There, the penguins participate in a courtship that, if successful, results in the hatching of a chick. For the chick to survive, both parents must make multiple arduous journeys between the ocean and the breeding grounds over the ensuing months. It took one year for the two isolated cinematographers Laurent Chalet and Jérôme Maison to shoot the documentary, which was shot around the French scientific base of Dumont d'Urville in Adélie Land. March of the Penguins was released in France on 26 January 2005 by Buena Vista International and in the United States by Warner Independent Pictures on 24 June 2005. The documentary won the 2006 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. On 1 June 2010, a home video release in France included the movie in the Disneynature collection. A direct sequel titled March of the Penguins 2: The Next Step (aka March of the Penguins 2: The Call) was released in France in 2017 by Disneynature. It was released in the United States exclusively on Hulu on 23 March 2018. It is named as one of the most successful documentaries in North America and France. Subject matter The emperor penguins use a particular spot as their breeding ground because it is on ice that is solid year round with no danger of the ice becoming too soft to support the colony that exists. At the end of Antarctic summer, the breeding ground is only a few hundred meters away from the open water where the penguins can feed. However, by the end of winter, the breeding ground is over away from the nearest open water. To reach it, all the penguins of breeding age must traverse this great distance.