Cool Story Bro: 48Hour film competition winners announced

A scene from Grand Champion winning film, Under the Bridge. Photo / Supplied

Usually when you think "cool story bro", you think of something bad.

But the Auckland filmmaking team Cool Story Bro have just taken out three major awards at the HP48Hours filmmaking competition, including the grand prize.

Their film, Under The Bridge was crowned Grand Champion and director Lauren Porteous won Best Director and the Gaylene Preston/WIFT Award for Best Female Director.

A scene from Under the Bridge. Photo / Supplied

Porteous also won Best Female Director last year with The Morning After, and last month she won Best Screenplay at the Show Me Shorts festival for Motel.

As the Grand Champions, Cool Story Bro won a $16,000 in cash grants, a $10,000 HP Tech package, $15,000 of post-production time at Curious Films and more.

The competition gave teams 48 hours to make a film of a randomly assigned genre involving a female, a collision, a technical element called a smash cut and a sound effect called a Wilhelm scream.

There was a focus this year on encouraging women to take on creative roles in the competition, and it shows.

Women took out the Best Director awards in three of the eight regions - Auckland (Lauren Porteous), Taranaki (Brittany Baker) and Bay of Plenty (Keisha McDonald).

Organiser Ruth Korver says, "It's really heartening this year to see more women getting involved in the competition. We're celebrating that a female director has won the National Final and we hope that will inspire other women to direct an HP48 HOURS film next year."

THE FULL WINNERS' LIST IS AS FOLLOWS:

GRAND CHAMPION - Under The Bridge - Cool Story Bro Film (dir Lauren Porteous)
2ND PLACE - A Friend For Life - Missing Pixels
3RD PLACE - Feeding - Southern Belles

BEST DIRECTOR - Lauren Porteous - Under The Bridge - Cool Story Bro Film
BEST FEMALE DIRECTOR - Lauren Porteous - Under The Bridge - Cool Story Bro Film
BEST ULTRA - Jack and Joni - Moffilaide - director Hayden Weal
RISK Award - The Snapper - Michael's Baes
BEST ACTRESS - Rhiannon McCall from Feeding by Southern Belles
BEST ACTOR - Tom Trevella from Last Christmas by Little Old Lady Productions
BEST SCRIPT - Matt Butler for Some Body At The Lake by The Creamery
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY - James Wilkinson, The Black Ballet, Super Furious Ninja Dragon
BEST ANIMATION - The Real Rare Arctic Firefly by Lovely Bongo Drums
BEST EDITING - Thomas Asche, Adam Prest, Taylor Wilson, Chris Willemse for Pizza Money by Jovial Entertainment
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE - Ewan Clark, The Real Rare Arctic Firefly by Lovely Bongo Drums
BEST ORIGINAL SONG - Nick Garrett, Banned Practice by Rambunctious
BEST DISQUALIFIED FILM - Scobies by Temple of Solitude
BEST HIGH SCHOOL TEAM - The Okay Company of Kapiti College for Death Blade Tiger 6: The Revengeance