48 Hour Film Project


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 2019, was held in Orlando, Florida.

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 was held in Paris, France.

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 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

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.
YearFilmGenreTeam
Nationality
2002White Bitch DownMysteryBoondogglers
Jon Hill		 Atlanta, Georgia
2003BaggageFantasySlapdash Films
Kent Nichols		 Los Angeles, California
2004MovedScience fictionNice Hat Productions
Scott Ippolito
Jim Issa		 Atlanta, Georgia
2005Mimes of the PrairieMusical or WesternTeam Last to Enter
John Hansen		 Des Moines, Iowa
2006Tooth and NailMockumentaryCinema Syndicate
Sean McGrath		 Portland, Oregon
2007TimeCatcherSuperheroNo Budget Productions
Amit Saragosi		 Tel Aviv, Israel
2008TransfertHorrorFatCat Films
Pierre Zandrowicz		 Paris, France
2009Nicht nur der Himmel ist blauMockumentarySharktankcleaners
Oliver Walser		 Berlin, Germany
2010The Girl Is MimeSilent filmFar From Home
Tim Bunn		 London, England
2011In CaptivitySuperheroJpixx Films
Jon Abrahams		 Hampton Roads, Virginia
2012Jacques SerresDark comedyLes Productions avec Volontiers
François Goetghebeur
Nicolas Lebrun		 Paris, France
2013Geen Klote!UnknownDe Filmband
Jon Karthaus
Melvin Simons		 Amsterdam, Netherlands
2014These Dirty WordsRomanceJear Productions and The Pitchery
Jens Rijsdijk		 Rotterdam, Netherlands
2015UnforgettableFish out of waterTake 23
Marco Grandia		 Amsterdam, Netherlands