Virtual reality now has Emmy winners, too

Virtual reality has official entered awards season territory.

Henry, a VR animated short about a hedgehog, received an Emmy for Outstanding Original Interactive Program. It's part of the juried Emmy awards given before the ceremony on Sept. 18, and it's the first piece of VR narrative to win such an award.

The eight-minute short was produced by Oculus Story Studio, an internal division of the VR headset maker focused on crafting narrative that works best in virtual reality. In that sense, Henry director Ramiro Lopez Dau, who came from a career animating films at Pixar, said there's an incredible amount of experimentation.

"VR storytelling is so early in its life, so we really wanted to answer the basic questions for storytelling: can you feel empathy for the character?" he told Mashable. "Before even knowing if we could tell a story, we wanted to test the empathy and connection."

Henry the hedgehog's problem in the film is simple: he's desperate to give someone a hug, but his spines aren't exactly PDA-friendly. The way Dau gets the simplistic story to resonate is how much Henry and his costars connect with the viewer, by looking directly at them (thanks to VR's positional tracking) instead of looking at a camera.

"People really feel for him, in a different way than in a movie.That emotional connection made people feel differently. They'd say, 'I really want to reach out and hug him,' or 'I really want to help him out," Dau said.

Dau's animation background may have prepared him for this role in some ways, but he said VR short films are now having to throw out much of the rules. While the team started working with traditional storyboards, they realized it didn't always translate.

"There moments that we felt the story was working, but when we put in VR, it didn’t work," Dau said. "The feeling was different when you were in the space with him."

The eventual success, and the Emmy jury's recognition of it, gives Dau hope for the future of VR storytelling.

"It shows the industry is really backing us, by giving us big, massive, important award is going to VR," Dau said. "There's so much potential for great storytelling down the road."

Henry is available to watch for free through the Oculus storefront.