Colorado film producer Shane Boris came into tonight’s Academy Awards with a 40 percent chance of winning an Oscar, and he 100 percent went out with one.

“Navalny,” directed by Daniel Roher and produced by a team of four including Boris, was named Best Documentary Feature in a stacked field of nominees, including a second film produced by Boris.

“I never make movies with the intention or the expectation of awards recognition,” Boris told the Denver Gazette last week. “It’s much deeper than that for me. It’s the satisfaction that comes from just having your film understood and received and knowing that it is resonating with people.”

“Navalny” focuses on the poisoned and imprisoned Vladimir Putin critic Alexei Navalny. “I’m continuously inspired by Alexei’s and (Bulgarian investigative journalist Christo Grozev’s) commitment to shining light in dark places,” said Boris, a 2000 graduate of Colorado Academy. “They inspire us to stand up against autocrats and to stand up against authoritarianism wherever it rears its head.”

The other producers on the ‘Navalny’ team are Odessa Rae, Diane Becker and Melanie Miller.

Roher dedicated the win to Navalny. His wife, Yulia Navalnaya, then took to the podium and told the world her husband is a prisoner for telling the truth – and for protecting democracy. “Stay strong, my love,” she said.

Boris was also nominated for “Fire of Love,” directed by Sara Dosa. That film follows the daring French couple Katia and Maurice Krafft, who roamed the planet chasing and investigating volcanic eruptions – and ultimately died together in one. Boris recently announced that he will next adapt “Fire of Love” into a narrative feature film.

Other nominees in the category included “All That Breathes,” “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” and “A House Made of Splinters.”

“Navalny” started off as an underdog to win the Oscar, according to expert predictions. But after key wins at earlier awards ceremonies, it rose to the top of the Gold Derby odds, which are calculated based on the combined predictions of the site’s thousand of users. “Navalny” previously won at the Producers Guild Association Awards and at Britain’s BAFTA Awards, among others.

It was, as they say on the walk to the pulpit, Boris’ third nomination and first win in this category. Boris earned his first Academy Award nomination for “The Edge of Democracy” in 2020.

Boris and the great Walt Disney are the only producers ever to be nominated for two different documentaries in the same Academy Awards season. Boris is the first to win.