Man on Wire

Man on Wire took home the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature on Sunday night, and its French star, the daring tightrope walker Philippe Petit, celebrated by balancing the statuette on his chin.

As the director, James Marsh, accepted the award onstage at the Kodak Theatre, he called out to Petit, seated in the audience. “It doesn’t feel right to be up here on my own, so Philippe you got about 20 seconds to get up here, as you do,” Marsh said, as Petit ran down the aisle and bounded up onto the stage.

After giving what he called “the shortest speech in Oscar history,” (“Yes!”) the master showman took a coin out of his pocket, a gift from fellow nominee Werner Herzog, and made it disappear. Not to be stopped, he then took the coveted (and heavy) Oscar statuette and balanced it on his chin until the music began to play and he walked off stage with his director.

Man on Wire tells the remarkable story of Petit’s famous and terrifying 1974 stunt, in which he walked between the two towers of the World Trade Center on a tightrope eight times in 45 minutes, 110 stories above the ground.

Read a review of the film in French here.

Man on Wire’s website