March of the Penguins

"In the harshest place on Earth, love finds a way."

2005 1h 20m FR

👍

7.1

SOLID

★7.1TMDB · 1,252

DocumentaryFamily

Synopsis

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Every year, thousands of Antarctica's emperor penguins make an astonishing journey to breed their young. They walk, marching day and night in single file 70 miles into the darkest, driest and coldest continent on Earth. This amazing, true-life tale is touched with humour and alive with thrills. Breathtaking photography captures the transcendent beauty and staggering drama of devoted parent penguins who, in the fierce polar winter, take turns guarding their egg and trekking to the ocean in search of food. Predators hunt them, storms lash them. But the safety of their adorable chicks makes it all worthwhile. So follow the leader... to adventure!!

“In the harshest place on Earth, love finds a way.”

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Cast

Charles Berling
Father Penguin (voice)
Romane Bohringer
Mother Penguin (voice)
Jules Sitruk
Baby Penguin (voice)
Morgan Freeman
Narrator

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Luc Jacquet
Writers: Jordan Roberts, Michel Fessler, Luc Jacquet
Languages: French, English
Countries: France

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

80 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $127M — a 15.9× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 21 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: French, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "March of the Penguins Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

AWARDS

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Luc Jacquet, shot by Laurent Chalet. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Émilie Simon. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Luc Jacquet directs. Laurent Chalet behind the camera. Émilie Simon scores. Sabine Emiliani cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in France. Dialogue in French, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

180 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
2Grossed $127M — a 15.9× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
3Released 21 years ago.
4Dialogue crosses 2 languages: French, English.
5Part of the "March of the Penguins Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
6Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
7Directed by Luc Jacquet, shot by Laurent Chalet. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
8Original score by Émilie Simon. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
9Editor Sabine Emiliani shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
10Charles Berling and Romane Bohringer and Jules Sitruk carry the top of the cast.
11Marketing tagline: "In the harshest place on Earth, love finds a way.".
12IMDB entry: tt0428803 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
13Classified under 21 themes, including "cold", "parent child relationship", "penguin", "brood".
14Released under 14 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Laurent Chalet
Original score: Émilie Simon
Editing: Sabine Emiliani
Sound: Gérard Lamps
Runtime: 80 min · 1h 20m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $8,000,000
Box office: $127,392,693
Return: 1592% of budget
Original language: FR
Certification (US): G
IMDB: March of the Penguins (2005)

Awards

Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Part of

March of the Penguins Collection

March of the Penguins is a 2005 French feature-length nature documentary depicting the yearly journey of the emperor penguins of Antarctica. 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 (and released in the United States through Hulu on 23 March 2018).