Respawn and Oculus Studios won an Oscar for the best documentary short subject film Colette. The win is a victory for VR.
Virtual reality earned a great public relations coup from the Oscars. Respawn Entertainment, a division of Electronic Arts, and Oculus Studios won an Academy Award on Sunday for Best Documentary Short for the film Colette. The win is a momentous occasion for the video game industry. It should also draw more prestige and attention to relatively small medium of virtual reality, as Respawn’s team created the documentary as part of the VR game Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. This is the first time a game company has won an Oscar. Colette is about the emotional journey of a 90-year-old former French Resistance fighter who traveled to Germany for the first time after World War II in search of closure about her lost brother. Anthony Giacchino directed the film as one of the features for Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, a first-person VR shooter that puts players in the shoes of a soldier during World War II. That game was made in partnership with Facebook’s Oculus VR division.
