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Who really was Jacques-Yves Cousteau?

For Baby Boomers and Generation Xers, Cousteau was part of the cultural universe. Not only did he take us on his explorations of life under on the sea on his beloved ship the Calypso, he and co-director Louis Malle mesmerized viewers with his Cannes and Oscar-winning 1956 documentary “The Silent World” (the first non-fiction film to win the Palme d’Or). He went on to win two more Oscars and 10 Emmys (from 40 nominations) for his television series and documentaries. Cousteau also managed to find the time to write 50 plus books. He co-invented the revolutionary Aqua-Lung which allowed longer deep-sea dives, created the environmental advocacy group the Cousteau Society in 1974 and, five years before his death in 1997, addressed the historical first Earth Summit.

Tthe new National Geographic documentary “Becoming Cousteau” from two-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker Liz Garbus reveals just how complex and complicated an individual the adventurer was.

Jacques Cousteau was an adventurer, filmmaker, inventor, author, unlikely celebrity and conservationist. But for National Geographic’s “Becoming Cousteau,” director Liz Garbus focused on his legacy as an explorer.

Garbus chronicled the highs and lows of Cousteau’s life as an adventurer who was a dedicated conservationist and was highlighting climate change half a century ago.

To tell this story, Garbus partnered with editor Pax Wasserman to comb through Cousteau’s archival footage, and rather than use talking heads, Garbus and Wasserman let the explorer narrate this timely documentary.

Garbus and Wassterman spoke to Variety about their collaboration.

I grew up in the U.K, but wasn’t familiar with Jacques Cousteau, what did he mean to you growing up?

Liz Garbus: He certainly was on in the U.K. I think in some ways, that’s exactly why we made this film. For me, and I think people who...

At the Academy Awards on Sunday night, Kevin O’Connell just broke the longest streak for Oscar nominations without a win. The 59-year-old New Yorker had been nominated 21 times in total, making 2017 a very good year for him.

Who else among Hollywood’s finest has had to weather a storm of nominations without a win? Well, even just keeping it to over 10 nominations, it’s a healthy list. Let’s take a look.

Greg P. Russell

O’Connell’s win must have been somewhat bittersweet for Russell, who’s directly behind the elder sound mixer in the category of most nominations without wins.

Headhunters

It's not just the UK that's in a thrall to the current wave of Scandinavian noir: this Jo Nesbø adaptation was exported to around 50 countries – a record for a Norwegian film.

While the police in these crime stories are all flawed and, to some extent defined by their mental conditions, be they depression, childhood trauma or Ocd, the criminals walk a more hubristic path. What's refreshing is that those on the wrong side of the law are not conveniently shaped and softened to make them more likable.

The main character here, Roger Brown, is pretty despicable all round. His professional life sees him using his natural arrogance as a headhunter for multinational concerns, selecting those as greedy and ruthless as himself for top level jobs. If that doesn't make you warm to him, he's also an art thief – all to keep himself in the lap of luxury. His potential...

Marshall Flaum, a visionary documentarian and five-time Emmy-winning producer-director-writer, died Oct. 1 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of complications following hip surgery. He was 85.

Marshall Flaum and Jacques Costeau   During a 55-year career, Flaum's work included collaborations with Jacques Cousteau, Jane Goodall, David Wolper, Jack Haley Jr. and Hanna-Barbera, with subjects ranging from Lyndon Johnson and Frank Lloyd Wright to James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

In the first of his two Oscar-nominated docs, "The Yanks Are Coming" (1963), Flaum created what he called "the entertainment documentary." He became one of the first in his field to integrate popular music of the time with stock footage of World War I.

"Let My People Go: The Story of Israel" (1965), for which he received his second Academy Award nom and a Peabody Award, examined the plight of the Jews.

After serving in the Army in World War...

One of the true pioneers of TV miniseries and documentaries, Wolper died Tuesday night from congestive heart failure at age 82. Wolper transformed the miniseries into event programming, particularly when he was the executive producer of Roots, the eight-segment ABC miniseries adaptation of the Alex Haley book that smashed ratings record and had half the country watching in early 1977. Wolper also produced the opening and closing ceremonies for the 1984 Olympic  Games in Los Angeles; and  he produced such game-changing documentaries as the Mike Wallace-narrated 1958 The Race for Space (which was Oscar-nominated), The Making of the President 1960 and The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau specials. His programs won 50 Emmys and two Academy Awards, along with five Peabody Awards. Wolper grew up in New York and after attending USC, really got his producing career off the ground with the space documentary, which he self-syndicated because networks were reluctant to bite. Wolper...

One of the true pioneers of TV miniseries and documentaries, Wolper died Tuesday night from congestive heart failure at age 82. Wolper transformed the miniseries into event programming, particularly when he was the executive producer of Roots, the eight-segment ABC miniseries adaptation of the Alex Haley book that smashed ratings record and had half the country watching in early 1977. Wolper also produced the opening and closing ceremonies for the 1984 Olympic  Games in Los Angeles; and  he produced such game-changing documentaries as the Mike Wallace-narrated 1958 The Race for Space (which was Oscar-nominated), The Making of the President 1960 and The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau specials. His programs won 50 Emmys and two Academy Awards, along with five Peabody Awards. Wolper grew up in New York and after attending USC, really got his producing career off the ground with the space documentary, which he self-syndicated because networks were reluctant to bite. Wolper...