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.[1]
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.[1] Filmapalooza is hosted by a different city each year.[1] The most recent Filmapalooza, in 2023, was held in Los Angeles, United States of America.[2]
The competition began in Washington, D.C., in 2001.[1] It was created by Mark Ruppert and is produced by Ruppert and Liz Langston.[1] In 2009, nearly 40,000 filmmakers made around 3,000 films in 76 cities across the globe.[1]
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.[1]
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.[1] Filmapalooza is hosted by a different city each year.[1] The most recent Filmapalooza, in 2023, was held in Los Angeles, United States of America.[2]
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.[3]
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.[3]
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.[4]
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.[5]
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.[6][7] 48 Go Green soon became 48FILM Project.[8]
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.[20]
Atlanta, Georgia
Tel Aviv, Israel
Paris, France
Berlin, Germany
London, England
Amsterdam, Netherlands
