A NORTH-EAST man was amongst those to win at the Oscars last night.

Former Northumberland schoolboy James Reed, who attended Prudhoe Community High School, accepted an award for Best Documentary Feature alongside co-director Pippa Ehrlich. 

They claimed the prize for My Octopus Teacher, a Netflix original documentary that follows diver Craig Foster building a relationship with an octopus in a South African undersea kelp forest.

The heartwarming story that documents a human-octopus friendship already bagged the Bafta and Producers Guild awards for best documentary.

In 2015, Mr Reed produced a multi-award winning film Jago – A Life Underwater and has gone from strength-to-strenth making critically acclaimed films in partnership with the BBC, Netflix and Discovery.

Britain has enjoyed a solid night at the 2021 Oscars.

The most high-profile winner was Sir Anthony Hopkins, who was named best actor for his role in The Father, in which he plays an ageing man struggling with memory loss.

It is Sir Anthony’s second Oscar, coming 29 years after he won best actor in 1992 for The Silence Of The Lambs.

This is the longest gap between wins by any actor in this category in the history of the Oscars.

The Welshman, 83, also becomes the oldest person to win an Academy Award for acting.