'Colette' documentary Oscars win an historic moment for videogames

Videogame history at the Oscars today, with the best short documentary award going to Colette, produced as an in-game feature of the VR game Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. The film looks at the history of French resistance fighter Colette Marin-Catherine, one of the last surviving members of the French resistance.

So how did it qualify for the Academy Awards? The 24-minute short film was entered into film festivals before the game was released, which is the key to qualifying – it's gotta appear in theatres before anywhere else if you want to win one of those shiny Oscars. But from the outset it was one of a series of shorts created by Respawn Entertainment to be integrated into its game to honour some true heroes of World War II.

The Guardian also bought the rights to the short film on its own, so if you don't have a VR rig to experience it within the context of the game, you can watch it right here via YouTube:

It is the first time a videogame has won any award at the Oscars, so congratulations to Respawn Entertainment, who also makes Apex Legends and in recent years also made Jedi: Fallen Order.