Fortnite is hosting a film festival this weekend

Seems strange to even type these words but Fortnite, the videogame phenomenon, is to host a film festival. "Shortnite" will take place on February 20 and 21, and invite players to come and watch short movies in a dedicated virtual cinema area. There won't be any combat, so you're free to simply watchalong without a rocket whizzing past your characters head.

The lineup of twelve shorts will include films from "Academy Award, Baftas and Emmy winners". So it's definitely going to be worth logging into the event.

Mass appeal

The most interesting aspect about this whole thing is how brands, artists and now movie makers see Fortnite and its army of fans. Millions of players are basically a captive audience for whatever event they put on.

You only have to look at the impact the virtual Travis Scott concert had. Right now the YouTube clip of the show currently has a whopping 135m views, which just goes to show the power of Fortnite. 

And by reading between the lines of a this film festival, which is often associated with grizzled movie critics tutting and writing things in a notepad, it seems there's an appetite for it with the younger demographic.

What next? Live English Premier League games? In fact, that's not such a far-fetched idea.

Fortnite is a free-to-play game and is available to download from here