Kickstarter-funded project wins at the Oscars

Well this is pretty cool. A Kickstarter-funded documentary made history by winning Best Documentary Short at the Academy Awards on Sunday.

As a validation for the widely popular crowd funding platform, documentary short film Inocente has became the first ever Kickstarter project to win an Oscar.

Last week the crowd funding site said in a blog post that three projects funded through its platform had been nominated for prestigious film awards.

“Among this year’s nominees in the short-film categories are three Kickstarter-funded films: Kings Point and Inocente for Best Documentary Short, and Buzkashi Boys for best live-action short,” wrote the site.

But this is not the first time projects funded by Kickstarter have been nominated. A number of other projects have been nominated in previous years but this is the first time that a Kickstarter-funded project has won.

“Inocente tells the story of a 15-year-old homeless girl pursuing her dream of becoming an artist. Kings Point tells the story of six seniors living in a retirement community of 15 000. Both have received rave reviews.”

The project raised US$52 527, surpassing its US$50 000 goal with 294 backers while Kings Point, the other nominee, raised US$10 165 from 111 backers.

This win is a huge feather in Kickerstarter’s cap and should make the platform a more attractive option for independent filmmakers.

Below is the Kickstarter video for Inocente.