The 48 Hour Film Project is an annual film competition in which teams of filmmakers are assigned a genre, a character, a prop, and a line of dialogue, and have 48 hours to create a short film containing those elements. The competition has been active since 2001.
In the weeks after the 48 hours of filmmaking are complete, screenings are held in each city and a winner is chosen to represent that city at Filmapalooza—a festival that features "best of" screenings of the winners from each city. Filmapalooza is hosted by a different city each year. The most recent Filmapalooza, in 2024, was held in Lisbon, Portugal.
Background The competition began in Washington, D.C., in 2001. It was created by Mark Ruppert and is produced by Ruppert and Liz Langston. In 2009, nearly 40,000 filmmakers made around 3,000 films in 76 cities across the globe.
After the 48 hours of filmmaking are complete, each city screens all the competing films, and a jury subsequently vote on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd best films. Most cities also give out awards to their films in several categories, including directing, writing, and acting; an Audience Choice award is sometimes voted on as well, by the audience of the screenings in each city.
The film that wins 1st place goes on to represent their city at Filmapalooza—a festival that features "best of" screenings of the winners from each city. Filmapalooza is hosted by a different city each year. The most recent Filmapalooza, in 2023, was held in Los Angeles, United States of America.
Related competitions
In 2003, the creators of the 48 Hour Film Project created the National Film Challenge, which is an annual three-day film competition with roughly the same structure as the 48 Hour Film Project, except that the films are mailed in when completed and then screened on-line, rather than being shown in movie theater in the local city.
In 2008, this competition was opened to filmmakers from around the world and although the name was not officially changed, the runner-up hailed from Utrecht, Netherlands.
The organizers of the Auckland competition split off from the 48 Hour Film Project after the 2003 competition and formed 48HOURS, which is now a wholly separate organization that runs a similar competition in New Zealand.
In 2006, the producers of the National Film Challenge began the International Documentary Challenge (also known as the "Doc Challenge") in which participating filmmakers produce a documentary in under five days.
In 2011, 48 Go Green split off from 48 Hour Film Project to become a separate, independent organization. 48 Go Green had a similar style of competition. The primary differences were an ecological theme, and an entirely online competition to allow worldwide participation. 48 Go Green and 48 Hour Film Project parted ways following a disagreement between 48 Hour Film Project and co-producers Francesco Vitali and Christos Siametis. 48 Go Green soon became 48FILM Project.
List of participating locations All cities listed below have participated every year since their introduction, unless otherwise noted.
Starting in 2001 Washington, District of Columbia
Starting in 2002 Atlanta, Georgia Austin, Texas Los Angeles, California New York City, New York Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Starting in 2003 Auckland, New Zealand (2003 only; became 48HOURS) Boston, Massachusetts Cincinnati, Ohio Nashville, Tennessee San Francisco, California
Starting in 2004 Brisbane, Australia (did not participate in 2011) Greensboro, North Carolina London, England (did not participate from 2005 to 2007) Minneapolis, Minnesota Portland, Oregon San Diego, California Sheffield, England (2004 only) St. Louis, Missouri
Starting in 2005 Aberdeen, South Dakota (2005 only) Asheville, North Carolina Baltimore, Maryland Black Rock City, Nevada Chicago, Illinois Denver, Colorado Des Moines, Iowa Houston, Texas Las Vegas, Nevada Little Rock, Arkansas Miami, Florida Paris, France Phoenix, Arizona (until 2008) Seattle, Washington
Starting in 2006 Albuquerque, New Mexico Fargo, North Dakota (did not participate in 2010) Louisville, Kentucky Portland, Maine Providence, Rhode Island
Starting in 2007 Amsterdam, Netherlands Berlin, Germany (did not participate in 2010) Buffalo, New York Cleveland, Ohio Dallas, Texas Ghent, Belgium (2007 only) Hampton Roads Honolulu, Hawaii (until 2008) Indianapolis, Indiana Jacksonville, Florida Madison, Wisconsin Machinima Milwaukee, Wisconsin New Orleans, Louisiana Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Richmond, Virginia Rome, Italy Salt Lake City, Utah San Antonio, Texas San Jose, California Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida Tel Aviv, Israel Utrecht, Netherlands
Starting in 2008 Athens, Greece (until 2010) Columbus, Ohio Detroit, Michigan Edinburgh, Scotland Finland (2008 only) Geneva, Switzerland (did not participate in 2010) Inland Empire, California Kansas City, Missouri Melbourne, Australia Mumbai, India Orlando, Florida Singapore Sydney, Australia Toronto, Ontario
Starting in 2009 Antwerp, Belgium (2009 only) Beijing, China Breda, Netherlands (until 2011) Haifa, Israel (until 2010) Hong Kong, China (until 2010) Jerusalem (until 2010) Lisbon, Portugal New Hampshire Paducah, Kentucky Savannah, Georgia Seoul, South Korea (did not participate in 2011)
Starting in 2010 Granada, Spain Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Johannesburg, South Africa Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia Newcastle upon Tyne, England (2010 only) Nijmegen, Netherlands Tirana, Albania
Starting in 2011 Barcelona, Spain Beirut, Lebanon Brașov, Romania Delhi, India Dijon, France Dubai, United Arab Emirates Glasgow, Scotland Hanoi, Vietnam Kaohsiung, Taiwan Mexico City, Mexico (2011 only) New Haven, Connecticut Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Osaka, Japan Prague, Czech Republic São Paulo, Brazil (2011 only) Seville, Spain Shanghai, China Warsaw, Poland Prague, Czech Republic Starting in 2012 Amman, Jordan Brussels, Belgium Cairo, Egypt Cape Town, South Africa Dundee, Scotland Hyderabad, India İstanbul, Turkey Jackson, Mississippi Kraków, Poland Lyon, France Madrid, Spain Málaga, Spain Memphis, Tennessee Montreal, Quebec Renens, Switzerland Rotterdam, Netherlands Vilnius, Lithuania
Starting in 2014 Willemstad, Curaçao Castelo Branco, Portugal Charlotte, North Carolina Montpellier, France Tunis, Tunisie The competition organizers maintain records online that indicate which cities have participated in past years.
Awards
In each participating city, one participant is chosen as the City Winner and their film is submitted to a jury for consideration against other City Winners for the competition year. The jury's selection from among these films is named the year's winner and is honored at Filmapalooza, the finale festival for the 48 Hour Film Project.
Year Film Genre Team Nationality2002 White Bitch Down Mystery Boondogglers Atlanta, Georgia2003 Baggage Fantasy Slapdash Films Los Angeles, California2004 Moved Science fiction Nice Hat Productions Atlanta, Georgia2005 Mimes of the Prairie Musical or Western Team Last to Enter Des Moines, Iowa2006 Tooth and Nail Mockumentary Cinema Syndicate Portland, Oregon2007 TimeCatcher Superhero No Budget Productions Tel Aviv, Israel2008 Transfert Horror FatCat Films Paris, France2009 Nicht nur der Himmel ist blau Mockumentary Sharktankcleaners Berlin, Germany2010 The Girl Is Mime Silent film Far From Home London, England2011 In Captivity Superhero Jpixx Films Hampton Roads, Virginia2012 Jacques Serres Dark comedy Les Productions avec Volontiers Paris, France2013 Geen Klote! Unknown De Filmband Amsterdam, Netherlands2014 These Dirty Words Romance Jear Productions and The Pitchery Rotterdam, Netherlands2015UnforgettableFish out of waterTake 23 Marco Grandia Amsterdam, Netherlands2021 La Zone Film de potes Flying Fish Montpellier, France
See also List of film festivals Photomarathon
References
External links 48 Hour Film Project Official Site