Coke has extended an annual invitation to Brazilian filmmakers to make a holiday film around its illuminated "caravans" or trucks, kicking off the series with an emotive story created by author, journalist and filmmaker Jose Roberto Torero.

JWT Brazil and Torero, (a screenwriters on "Uma história de futebol" or "A Football Tale," which was Oscar-nominated in 2001) created the saga of Mathias, a motherless boy who dreams of the day Santa might visit his town. There's only one problem: a broken bridge.

The short film, directed by Fernando Grostein Andrade, founder of Spray Filmes, was screened yesterday at Kinoplex theaters in Brazil, and is set to run on cable TV and during an exclusive commercial break on Globo TV Network, as well as online. Meanwhile, the story of Mathias will also be incorporated into Coke's Caravan parades in Brazil.

There's also a Virtual Reality collaboration with Google Cardboard, which lets people view a 360 degree scene showing different angles and parallel stories in the form of an animation, starting with the moment that Coca-Cola's trucks arrive in the town where Mathias lives. Zombie Studio, which co-produced the animation with Spray Filmes, worked on the animation.

The idea is that Coke will create a new story around the Christmas Caravans every year. Marcelo Páscoa, head of integrated marketing communication at Coca-Cola Brazil, said in a statement: "More than a campaign, we conceived this project as an entertainment platform. We want to turn Coca-Cola's Christmas Caravans into the main character of a story that is retold every year, touching consumers all over Brazil across several platforms."