This year’s Oscar hopefuls include some names you might not expect among the nominees: Respawn Entertainment and Oculus Studios.
No, the publisher of video games “Titanfall” and “Apex Legends,” and Facebook’s virtual reality studio are not nominated for best visual effects. “Colette,” a short film the companies co-produced along with the U.K. media outlet The Guardian, is nominated for best short documentary at the Academy Awards, being doled out Sunday.
The 25-minute film tells the story of Colette Marin-Catherine, 92, who was part of the French resistance during World War II. Along with French history student Lucie Fouble, she visits the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp in Germany where her brother Jean-Pierre had died in 1945, three weeks before allied troops freed prisoners there.
“The idea that a gaming company partners with a news organization to release this – is a first,” the film’s writer and director Anthony Giacchino told The Hollywood Reporter. “That’s never happened before [and] it’s pretty amazing to me.”
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“Colette” is one of several short films and interviews of real WWII veterans in the game ($59.99), available in the Oculus and Steam game stores. But you can watch “Colette” for free on Oculus TV. and on The Guardian’s website.
Before the game was released in December 2020,…
