March of the Penguins

March of the Penguins
Theatrical release poster
FrenchLa Marche de l'empereur
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Directed byLuc Jacquet
Written by
Produced by
  • Yves Darondeau
  • Christophe Lioud
  • Emmanuel Priou
Narrated by
Cinematography
Edited bySabine Emiliani
Music by
Production
companies
Distributed byBuena Vista International France
Release dates
  • 21 January 2005 (2005-01-21) (Sundance)
  • 26 January 2005 (2005-01-26) (France)
Running time
86 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
Budget$8 million
Box office$127.4 million

March of the Penguins (French: La Marche de l'empereur; French pronunciation: [lamaʁʃ dəlɑ̃ˈpʁœʁ]) is a 2005 French nature documentary film directed and written by Luc Jacquet. 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 French scientific base Dumont d'Urville in Adélie Land.

March of the Penguins was released in France on 26 January 2005 by Buena Vista International France. The documentary won the 2006 Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature. On 1 June 2010, a home video release in France included the film in the Disneynature collection. It is named as one of the most successful documentaries in North America and France.

A direct sequel titled March of the Penguins 2: The Next Step was released in France in 2017 by Disneynature.