Everything has the first video game trailer eligible for an Academy Award
Qualifies as an animated short film.
The 11-minute trailer for philosophical pontificating simulator Everything is eligible for an Academy Award - a first for a video game promotion, boasted game developer David OReilly.
The marketing material in question is included under the Academy's category "[best] animated short film", which it become eligible for after winning the Jury Prize for animation at the VIS Vienna Shorts film festival.
Everything's lengthy trailer focuses on the correlation between the universe's smallest, biggest, and most remote entities, all while being narrated by the late British philosopher Alan Watts.
You can watch the full short film right here:
The VIS Vienna jury called Everything's trailer "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," the jury stated in its announcement.
While the trailer is indeed mesmerising, one shouldn't discount the actual game either, as Eurogamer contributor Simon Parkin called it "an astonishing work, one that broadens the definition of what a video game can be."
OReilly is no stranger to film though, as he created the holographic video game sequences in Spike Jonze's Her - a movie that similarly explores our connection to those a million miles away.