2 Video Game Companies Just Won an Oscar

Oculus Studios and Apex Legends creator Respawn won an Oscar during the 2021 Academy Awards, after co-producing a short documentary included in Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. The World War II documentary Colette won the Best Documentary (Short Subject) award at the 93rd Oscars. Colette was directed by Anthony Giacchino and co-produced by Oculus Studios and Respawn Entertainment, with the film released as part of the Gallery mode of Respawn’s 2020 virtual reality title Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. Respawn addressed the news on Twitter, with the company saying it was “humbled and honored” by the win. If you don’t own a virtual reality headset or Above and Beyond, you can watch it for free on The Guardian’s website after the newspaper helped distribute the film more widely. It's the first Oscar for Respawn, Oculus, or The Guardian.

We're over the moon about Colette's Best Documentary (Short Subject) #Oscars win tonight! From Vince, Peter, and all of us at Respawn, we are humbled and honored. Thank you.

And if you haven't seen the film, you can watch it for free here: https://t.co/CxwNGWMOXv — Respawn (@Respawn) April 26, 2021

Colette tells the story of Colette Marin-Catherine, a former member of the French Resistance, who returns (with history student Lucie Fouble) to Germany for the first time since World War 2, including visiting the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp where her brother was murdered. Colette herself turned 92 on the day the documentary won its Oscar. In his acceptance speech, Anthony Giacchino said “I would just like to thank, of course, Colette and Lucie. I want to thank our amazing E.P., Peter Hirschmann, at Electronic Arts, everyone at Electronic Arts and Respawn, and Oculus." You can check out our review of Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond here. We scored the game a 6 out of 10, calling it an “average-at-best” VR shooter. In other Respawn news, it was recently revealed that the studio is in the early stages of building a new franchise from scratch. We also learned last week that a new Apex Legends hero is coming on May 4, and the character is a Titanfall pilot’s daughter. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/11/medal-of-honor-above-and-beyond-review"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.