‘The Deepest Breath’ Director on Filming the Danger of Freediving

The BAFTA film awards longlists, announced on Jan 5. ahead of the final nominations on Jan. 18, featured many predictable names. “Barbie,” “Oppenheimer” and “Killers of the Flower Moon” dominated, while the likes of “Poor Things,” “Maestro,” “Saltburn,” “The Zone of Interest” and “All of Us Strangers” all fared well. But away from the best film and acting categories, some interesting features not in the spotlight find themselves vying for voters’ attention. 

Landing two longlist spots is “The Deepest Breath,” Laura McGann’s critically-lauded documentary exploring the mesmerizing world of freediving, the extreme sport in which thrill-seekers plunge to the bottom of oceans, often for several minutes, with only the air in their bodies to rely on, pushing themselves to the very edges of physical capability. 

As it sounds, the sport doesn’t come without some large degree of danger, and “The Deepest Breath” tells the story of two individuals — Italian champion freediver Alessia Zecchini and Irish safety diver Stephen Keenan — who find both their own purpose in life and, eventually, each other while a dark shadow of tragedy involving Keenan looms overhead. 

Not only did the feature — which was produced by U.K. doc titan John Battsek and acquired by Netflix ahead of its premiere at Sundance 2023 — find a slot in BAFTA’s documentary longlist, but it managed to snare a space in outstanding…