For what appears to be the first time ever, a video game has won an award that qualifies it for potential nomination for an Academy Award. A PlayStation and PC game that lets the player control anything they encounter in its world, Everything , won a jury award at the 2017 Vienna Shorts Festival. This award qualifies Everything for the Academy Awards.
David O’Reilly, Everything ’s creator, said this is, “the first time this has happened to a game/interactive project.” The jury award was for Animation, which technically makes Everything eligible for an Oscar in the Animated Short Film category. Per the Vienna Shorts Festival, “The Jury Prize — Animation goes to a film which, beyond being entertaining, has a strong poetic and philosophical theme. It serves a highly educational purpose, including an important political statement, that encourages to let our egos dissolve and gain a new perspective on the world.”
While a feature film must be shown in theaters to be eligible, the Academy allows more nuance to the Short Films category, as long as the film in question has won certain qualifying awards previously. Gamespot speculates that Everything may have been able to be technically considered as a short film due to a mode that essentially plays the game itself.
Source: GameSpot