Itching to go watch some movies but don't want to risk going to the movie theater during a pandemic? Fortnite has a solution for you! This weekend on the 20th and 21st, Fortnite is hosting a film festival on Party Royale's Big Screen, featuring a variety of short animated films.
Starting at 2 PM Eastern, the Short Nite Film Festival features a dozen animated shorts from a variety of creators from all around the world, including award nominees for award shows like the Academy Awards and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. The entire collection lasts for about half an hour, but it will play on repeat until the event ends at 2 PM Eastern on Sunday, so players can easily watch the film at any time. And if players would like to give their in-game character something to eat during the films, the item store will be selling a Jumbo Popcorn emote starting on February 19 at 7P PM Eastern.
One of the films players will be able to watch at the event is Richard Webber's 2020 short Bench, a claymation film about sharing. Webber, the award-winning director of the film, is supporting the film's global debut and said "Seeing Bench’s warm global reception since its debut has been a standout achievement this past year. We’re very excited to share the film inside Fortnite and contribute to the magic of a short film festival in Party Royale.”
This isn't the only time the Big Screen was used for showing real-life films. Near the end of 2019, players could catch an early clip of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, including Palpatine's speech that wasn't in the movie proper. Epic Games also debuted their bizarre "Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite" video on the Big Screen when they filed their lawsuit against Google for removing Fortnite from the Google Play store.
