Tragic tale of singer Amy Winehouse wins documentary Oscar

Asif Kapadia (left) and James Gay-Rees (right) of Amy accept award for best documentary at the 88th Annual Academy Awards. (Photo courtesy of The Oscar)

LOS ANGELES—“Amy,” a documentary about the musical genius and drug-induced death of jazz singer Amy Winehouse, won the Oscar for best documentary on Sunday.

The win capped a stellar awards season for the film, which is coming off dozens of other awards wins, including from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, the Grammys, and numerous critics contests.

The film, with a gross box office haul of $8.4 million so far, represents 43-year-old London-born director Asif Kapadia’s first Oscar. It is now streaming on Amazon’s Prime video service in the U.S.

“This film’s all about Amy, showing the world who she really was,” Kapadia said, describing the troubled singer-songwriter as “funny,” “intelligent,” and “someone who needed looking after.”

Kapadia shares the Oscar with producer James Gay-Rees, who also executive produced the Kapadia-directed documentary “Senna,” about the early death of Formula One race driver Ayrton Senna, in 2010.