Soar amidst the clouds and fly alongside over thirty species of migratory birds as filmmakers follow their trajectories and stopovers all over the globe. This award-winning documentary shows the lives of ducks, cranes, swans, storks, and other birds as their instinct for survival in the spring takes them on treacherous journeys, all with the promise of making an equally epic return in the autumn.

Filmmakers and over 400 crew members used planes, gliders, helicopters, and balloons to capture the birds’ aerial odysseys, offering a staggering, up-close look into their flight from every angle and at tremendous heights. This film shows wondrous scenes of migrations in various parts of the world, from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean, from the African coasts to the Siberian taiga, and from the Amazon and beyond, revealing the startling beauty and precariousness of avian pilgrimages.

Jacques Perrin (1941–2022) was a French actor, producer, and director who first rose to prominence for his performances in films such as Vittorio De Seta’s Almost a Man (1966), Jacques Demy’s Donkey Skin (1967), and Giuseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso (1989). He also worked as a film producer for Costa-Gavras’s Z (1969), Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Black and White in Color (1976), and Christophe Barratier’s The Chorus (2004). Aside from Winged Migration, Perrin’s other nature-centeredd films include Microcosmos (1996), Oceans (2009), and Seasons (2015).

Jacques Cluzaud studied law and cinema before working as an assistant director on films such as Régis Wargnier’s Indochine (1992) and Raoul Peck’s Lumumba (2000). During the 1990s, he worked on special format productions, including for the Futuroscope theme park in Poitiers, France. He co-directed Winged Migration, Oceans (2009), and Seasons (2015) with Jacques Perrin.

Michel Debats began his career as an assistant director, notably for Daniel Vigne’s The Return of Martin Guerre (1982), Claude Chabrol’s Cop au Vin (1985), and Frédéric Mitterand’s Madame Butterfly (1995). Aside from Winged Migration, he has since directed many documentaries, including School on the Move (2008).