FILM #6
OF 39
95TH ACADEMY AWARDS | 2023 OSCARS CHALLENGE
“FIRE OF LOVE”
FEBRUARY 5, 2023
DISNEY+
DAY 13
OF 48
Best DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Produced by Sara Dosa, Shane Boris and Ina Fichman
“Fire of Love” is astounding.
Katia and Maurice Krafft were one of the only volcanologist couples. They traveled the world, documenting all the volcanoes they visited, attempting to use their studies to build a warning system for the communities around these environmental hazards. Unfortunately, they lost their lives in that pursuit of knowledge. “Fire of Love” is Sara Dosa’s compilation of their unique story through the couple’s archival footage.
The footage is breathtaking. The Kraffts were amateur filmmakers, but the images they captured in photos and film rival anything I’ve seen. Whether this was the film’s color when the Kraffts recorded it or Dosa colored it for the film, someone did an incredible job of making footage spanning the 70s, 80s, and 90s look recent. These are unforgettable images, including volcanoes spewing molten lava with Katia or Maurice dangerously in the foreground, lava flows glowing in the dark, or ominous clouds billowing from the mouth of the volcanoes moments after it erupts.
The two scientists were also brilliant characters in and of themselves. Maurice liked being on camera, as they showed him hamming it up for interviews. Katia was more subdued and straight to business. She also seemed careful, as she warned Maurice of floating a raft in a lake of pure sulfuric acid or wanting to raft down an active lava flow. But despite their differences, you understood that they truly belonged together—two eccentric personalities with the same distinct passions.
There is so much to admire when it comes to this entire project. The amount the Kraffts documented seems unparalleled. The effort put forth by Sara Dosa to construct a collage of this couple’s extraordinary life is immense. Without those measures, time may have forgotten these pioneers—their names in no history books. But now, ordinary people can admire them for the impact they had on this world through a thoughtful and visually striking character study.
PREVIOUS NOMINATIONS
SARA DOSA
| First-time nominee |
SHANE BORIS
| 92nd Academy Awards (2019) | Best Documentary Feature | “The Edge of Democracy” | Nominee |
Ina Fichman
| First-time nominee |
Intrepid scientists and lovers Katia and Maurice Krafft died in a volcanic explosion doing the very thing that brought them together: unraveling the mysteries of volcanoes by capturing the most explosive imagery ever recorded.
Directed by Sara Dosa
Neon + National Graphic Documentary Films
January 20, 2022
98 minutes
ACCOLADES
BAFTA Awards — Best Documentary (Nominee)
American Cinema Editors Awards — Best Edited Documentary – Theatrical (Nominee)
Annapolis Film Festival — Best Feature Documentary [Winner]
Atlanta Film Critics Circle Awards — Best Documentary [Winner]
Black Film Critics Circle Awards — Best Documentary [Winner]
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards — Best Documentary [Winner]
Chicago Indie Critics Awards — Best Documentary [Winner]
Cinema Eye Honors Awards — Outstanding Editing [Winner]
Cinema Eye Honors Awards — Outstanding Original Score [Winner]
Cinema Eye Honors Awards — Outstanding Visual Design [Winner]
Cinema Eye Honors Awards — Outstanding Nonfiction Feature (Nominee)
Cinema Eye Honors Awards — Outstanding Direction (Nominee)
Cinema Eye Honors Awards — Outstanding Sound Design (Nominee)
Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards — Best Documentary Feature (Nominee)
Directors Guild of America Awards — Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary (Nominee)
DiscussingFilm Critics Awards — Best Documentary Feature [Winner]
DocsBarcelona Awards — Best Documentary [Winner]
Georgia Film Critics Association Awards — Best Documentary Film [Winner]
North Carolina Film Critics Association Awards — Best Documentary Film [Winner]
Online Association of Female Film Critics Awards — Best Documentary [Winner]
Online Film Critics Society Awards — Best Documentary [Winner]
Producers Guild Awards — Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Pictures (Nominee)
Phoenix Critics Circle Awards — Best Documentary Film [Winner]
Seattle Film Critics Society Awards — Best Documentary Feature [Winner]
Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards — Best Documentary [Winner]
Sundance Film Festival — Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award [Winner]
EXPERT PREDICTIONS
1. “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed”
2. “Fire of Love”
3. “Navalny”
4. “All That Breathes”
5. “A House Made of Splinters”
PERSONAL PREDICTIONS
1. “Navalny”
2. “Fire of Love”
3. “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed”
4. “All That Breathes”
5. “A House Made of Splinters”
