Just over 11.3 million people watched last night’s 68^th Primetime Emmy Awards, the television industry’s confab to honor excellence in the field. In a ceremony similar to the Academy Awards, dozens of awards are doled out honoring writers, directors and actors in everything from documentaries to comedy series. There was an industry-first this year which apparently prompted more than a few people to call their stockbrokers this morning.

The short virtual reality film Henry, produced by Oculus Story Studio (part of Facebook’s virtual reality efforts), won an Emmy for “Best Outstanding Original Interactive Program.” While it isn’t the first VR production to win an Emmy, it’s the first totally original production to do so. The first VR Emmy went to a spinoff of the television series Sleepy Hallow, and the category was actually won by a non-VR production previously.

This year’s win was clearly enough to draw investor’s attention though, as our virtual reality plays Himax Technologies (NSDQ: HIMX) and Immersion (NSDQ: IMMR) jumped up by as much a 4% during today’s trading.

While neither company posted any specific news that would have caused the run-up, in a statement released by Mark Zuckerburg congratulating Henry on its win he also said that big news about the Oculus VR system would be announced at its developer conference next month. He didn’t give any hints as to what that might be, but it obviously caught a lot of attention considering the speculation on industry-watching websites today.

While it probably hasn’t garnered as much attention as Zuckerberg’s announcement, the tech website The Verge called attention to Apple (NSDQ: ) having hired two well-known specialists in augmented and virtual reality over the summer, including one who previously worked on Oculus AR. There’s never been any doubt that Apple was interested in the field and it’s pretty common knowledge that it already has hundreds of people involved on AR and VR projects. But bringing on two heavy hitters is an indication that development efforts may be picking up.

The Wall Street Journal also ran a piece over the weekend that VR conferencing might soon replace videoconferences. While it was quick to point out that VR conferencing is nowhere near ready for primetime yet, several companies are already experimenting with the technology. It even quoted one Bank of Ireland executive as saying that VR conferencing felt like “the future of collaboration.”

This is a perfect example of “a rising tide lifts all boats,” with increasing media attention boosting VR-related stocks. We’ve seen similar effects in things like 3D printing stocks over the years, though virtual reality is nowhere near as long in the tooth. All the talk is also a good indication that VR is enjoying greater adoption, especially now that there are more than a few consumer VR sets available, so we should continue to see movement in sector.

Hopefully not too much though; I tend to get motion sickness so I won’t be trading in my old-fashioned television anytime soon.

Himax Technologies and Immersion remain buys under $15 and $12 respectively.