GAMETIME: Short documentary takes home first Oscar for videogame industry

GAMETIME with Matt Young April 28 Matt Young brings you the latest news from the videogame industry.

SASKATOON — The videogame industry has made its mark at the Oscar’s for the first time.

‘Colette’, a shot film featured in the game Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, won the award for best short documentary.

Co-produced by Oculus and Respawn Entertainment, it’s about a woman in the French Resistance who fought the Nazi’s. She returns to Germany for the first time since the Second World War, after being encouraged by a history student to visit a concentration camp where her brother was killed.

"The real hero here is Colette herself, who has shared her story with integrity and strength. As we see in the film, resistance takes courage, but facing one’s past may take even more. Allowing us to preserve this pilgrimage for future generations was a true act of bravery and trust," wrote Mike Doran, Oculus Studios Director of Production, in a blog on the Oculus website.

Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, produced by Respawn Entertainment and Published by Electronic Arts, is a first-person shooter virtual reality game that was released in December 2020.

Mortal Kombat posts top weekend box office numbers

The movie adaptation of the popular videogame series Mortal Kombat posted top numbers at the box office this weekend

According to IMDB, ‘Mortal Kombat’ grossed $23.3 million in its opening weekend, edging out Demon Slayer the Movie, which posted $21.1 million.

The Mortal Kombat videogame series is one of the most popular, since the first game was released in 1992. The most recent game, Mortal Kombat 11 was released for Nintendo, Xbox, Playstation and Windows in 2019.

Canadian film school creates scholarship for aspiring women game designers

A Canadian film school is hoping to attract more women who aspire to be in the videogame industry

The Vancouver Film School (VFS) has announced a new scholarship fund focused on female game designers.

"Game developers are starting to recognize that 44 per cent of its customers are female and that equity in the gaming workspace should be a priority. The best way to bring about that change is by having more women build the games," reads a description on the school’s website.

The Women in Game Design Scholarship is an initiative involving game studios based in Vancouver, The Coalition and Blackbird interactive, as well as the Vancouver Film School. The $100,000 scholarship fund will be used to create two full scholarships as well as partial scholarships.

"The recipients of the full scholarships will receive monthly mentorship from design professionals at The Coalition or Blackbird Interactive. Upon graduation, each of the full scholarship winners then receive a six-month paid design contract as their respective game studio."

"In addition, recipients of the full scholarship will each receive private mentorship by a team of shared disciplines from top-tier AAA studios The Coalition and Blackbird Interactive, as well as by their instructors at VFS. Upon graduation, these two recipients will also receive a paid six-month work contract at their respective studio, resulting in a game credit,"  VFS said on it’s website.