In-game cutscenes and videos have sometimes felt like movies in their own right, but when was the last time you saw one and thought it was worthy of an Oscar? If you thought the day would never come, you'd be surprised to learn that the short documentary Colette has done just that.
How a Video Game Won an Oscar
As Oculus reported on the Oculus blog, Colette was originally featured in the video game Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. In the game, players can browse a selection of extra content that gives real-world examples of how the great wars of the 20th Century shaped us as people.
One such piece was Colette, a mini-documentary that followed a woman of the same name. She fought as a member of the French Resistance against the Nazis during World War 2, and ever since the war ended, she had vowed never to go to Germany for the rest of her life.
However, that changes when a history student called Lucie encourages her to face her past and visit the country she's been avoiding her entire life. The journey takes Colette to the Nazi concentration camp where her brother died.
The documentary was also shown outside of the video game and received critical acclaim. It won the Best Documentary Short award at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival back in February 2020 and now has won the Oscar in the Documentary Short Subject category.
However, video games weren't the only star of the show in the 2021 Oscars. This year, we also saw many movies from streaming services rubbing shoulders with the heavy hitters, proving that it's not all about the silver screen anymore.
If you want to watch the documentary for yourself, you don't need a copy of the game if you don't have it. You can watch it via The Guardian or on Oculus TV.
When Gaming and Movies Collide
While some in-game movies and cutscenes are handled with expert care, nobody would predict that they'd one day catch the eye of film awards. While Colette isn't an in-game cutscene per see, it may be the first step into organizations recognizing video game content as being on equal footing with short movies.
If Colette whets your appetite for more, you'll be pleased to know that there are plenty of war-based documentaries out there on the internet. For instance, Netflix has its fair share of documentaries that focus on human conflict.