Oculus announced its own filmmaking studio at the ongoing Sundance Film Festival, along with some of the first movies and TV shows created by 'Story Studio', an in-house film team.

Most Oculus virtual reality demos are video game-based, but Oculus is looking to broaden its horizons with the creation of Story Studio.

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Lost was the first VR film to be shown at Sundance, and shows a robot lost in the jungle. The viewer can interact with the environment, able to feel "inside" the film while not interacting with the movie itself.

Dear Angelica, Bullfighter and Henry are three other Oculus films coming in the next few years, along with two other unnamed films. Oculus is betting big on VR for movies, and creating new ways for viewers to watch movies.

Story Studio is headed by Pixar Entertainment and other industry veterans, showing Facebook's capabilities for acquiring talent. Facebook recently opened its company for 1,200 new jobs, including 60 at Oculus. 

Having this basic interactivity with the film should be an interesting take on a non-interactive medium. VR could be the perfect platform to adventure between the viewer and the player, if Oculus can pull-off this type of integration between film and game.

Facebook acquired Oculus for US$2 billion in 2014, with the goal of making VR mainstream. What first looked like a gaming only VR machine is now multi-media, similar to current consoles.

Oculus hasn't revealed a consumer release date, but rumors say the commercial Oculus VR will be available sometime this year.

TagsOculus Rift, filmmaking, Story Studio, Virtual Reality