Fortnite to host in-game film festival
The Short Nite Film Festival will run February 20-21.
Like just about everything else over the past year, film festivals have largely moved online. Fortnite, Epic Games' ultra-popular Battle Royale shooter, continues its trend of bringing real life events into the game.
The Fortnite Presents Short Nite Film Festival, which will debut in the game on 20 February, will showcase animated shorts from around the world, including a number of titles previously nominated for best animated short film at the Academy Awards.
The slate of films, which sport a run time of about 30 minutes, will play on a loop for 24 hours as part of Fortnite's Party Royale feature. Players will also have the option to watch in the game's standard Battle Royale mode via picture-in-picture, though the Short Nite loop will only run every two hours there.
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For shorts that contain dialogue, players can add the option to watch with subtitles in their preferred language. Content creators are prohibited from recording the films during Short Nite, while any streams or VODs of the event must go dark per content protection rules.
In celebration of Short Nite, Fortnite players will be able to get their hands on the all-new Jumbo Popcorn Emote. The animation sees the player's avatar plop onto a fold-out chair with a comically huge bucket of popcorn, munching away while looking up intently.
Epic Games' popular free-to-play battle royale title is well into the fifth season of Chapter 2. The crossover-focused season continues to bring in characters from across various franchises, including the likes of Halo's Master Chief, G.I. Joe's Snake Eyes, and The Walking Dead's Daryl Dixon. Recently, a new leak hinted at WandaVision skins, potentially adding the MCU's most powerful couple into the mix, on top of the film festival.
The Short Nite Film Festival continues to demarcate Fortnite as a unique platform within the online gaming space. Especially during the ongoing pandemic, the ability to virtually gather for something like a film festival is creatively impressive. Fortnite is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
The Short Nite Film Festival will run February 20-21.
