Facebook is officially in the running for an Academy Award.
The social giant’s Oculus virtual-reality group, together with EA’s Respawn Entertainment, co-produced “Colette,” a documentary short created as part of VR video game “Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond.” On Monday, the film received an Oscar nomination for documentary short subject.
The 24-minute film from director Anthony Giacchino and producer Alice Doyard follows former French Resistance member Colette Marin-Catherine as she travels to Germany for the first time in 74 years. Her visit is inspired by a young history student who enters her life and convinces her to visit the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp where the Nazis killed her brother.
“Colette” was acquired and released by the U.K.’s Guardian newspaper, available to stream on its site (at this link) and on YouTube (at this link).
WWII-set “Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond” blends video game action and history together through gameplay and several short films — including “Colette” — focused on stories of war veterans. Players in the game assume the role of an Allied agent of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) tasked with infiltrating, outgunning and outsmarting the Nazi war machine.
Giacchino’s previous documentary, “The Giant’s Dream” (Warner Bros. Pictures), tells the story behind Oscar-winning director Brad Bird’s first feature film, “The Iron Giant.” Giacchino is currently working on an untitled World War II project set for the 75th anniversary of the end of the war.
“Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond” is executive produced by Respawn’s Peter Hirschmann, who previously was executive producer and VP of product development at LucasArts overseeing development of games for Star Wars, Indiana Jones and other intellectual property.
The other films nominated for documentary short subject at the 93rd Academy Awards are: “A Concerto Is a Conversation,” from Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers; “Do Not Split,” from Anders Hammer and Charlotte Cook; “Hunger Ward,” from Skye Fitzgerald and Michael Scheuerman; and “A Love Song for Latasha,” from Sophia Nahli Allison and Janice Duncan.
