The videogame Everything is actually getting qualified for an Academy Award

June 8th 2017, 2:11pm

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

So videogames and Oscars aren't exactly things that naturally go hand-in-hand. Even the best videogame adaptations (MORTAL KOMBAT and SILENT HILL) aren't exactly what you'd commonly consider "Oscar-worthy", no matter how much I think MORTAL KOMBAT should've won all the words that year.

Anyway, the PS4 game EVERYTHING, where you get to play as…well, everything (from antelopes, to buildings, to planets, to pieces of poop) was entered into an annual short-film festival held in Austria called the VIS Vienna Shorts, and was subsequently awarded the festival’s jury prize for best animated short film. This means that the game was automatically put into the longlist of possible Academy Award nominees for the Best Animated Short category. Which also makes it the first videogame ever qualified for an Oscar!

Now to be fair, there's no saying that it'll win, or even get on the Academy short list at all. However, it's still a nice first step. And, hey, imagine if it ended up winning!

Anyway, here's what the jurors said about the game:

"EVERYTHING 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."

Neat! Which is high praise for a game where you get to turn a planet into a piece of shit (although, all joking aside – having played the games – I have to agree with the jurors on this one).