Oculus VR animated short film 'Henry' wins an Emmy

Oculus Story Studio, the Facebook-owned unit crafting computer-generated short films for the social-networking giant's VR headset maker Oculus, has won its first Emmy Award.

The studio's animated short film "Henry," a nine-minute piece about a cute porcupine whose spiky exterior threatens to make his birthday party a lonely affair, won an Emmy for Outstanding Original Interactive Program, the company said Thursday.

"We never anticipated that one of our first projects would be given such a distinction and this recognition is not only a testament to our team's creative and technical achievements, but also a validation for the VR storytelling community as a whole," Ramiro Lopez Dau, the director of "Henry," said in a blog post.

Unveiled at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, Oculus Story Studio is just the latest player looking to ride the wave of VR, a burgeoning field that promises to transport headset-wearing users to immersive, computer-generated environments, be it floating through outerspace or walking with dinosaurs.

The concept has existed for decades, but big investments by the likes of Facebook, Samsung and HTC have spurred an explosion in sophisticated hardware available to consumers. Content makers like Oculus Story Studios are trying to figure out how to translate their skills to a medium that upends many filmmaking norms.