Join the Gisborne 48Hours film challenge, win up to $55,000 in prizes

Tom Paton, film-maker and manager of the 48Hours film-making challenge in Gisborne.

It’s almost that time of year again when budding filmmakers get creative and produce a short film over a weekend.

Registrations close on Wednesday for The Vista Foundation 48Hours, a film-making challenge with incredible prizes up for grabs. This year’s overall winner of the Grand National Champion APEE will receive a $20,000 cash prize from WingNut Films, $20,000 worth of post-production services from Park Road Post Production, $15,000 worth of gear hire from Portsmouth Film Equipment Rental and lots more.

Gisborne 48Hours film-making challenge manager Tom Paton said there are 20 teams already registered, but people still have a few more days to sign up.

“I keep being told we’ve got some of the best judges in the competition here in Gisborne,” Paton says.

The Gisborne judging panel boasts a line-up of successful film-makers, including Jason Canovas, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Achievement in Sound Editing for his work on The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.

Other Gisborne judges include audio engineer Mike Hedges, who has won Academy Awards for his work on Peter Jackson blockbusters King Kong and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of The King; and five-time 48Hours film-making challenge winner Josh O’Neil, to name a few.

Since 2003, this competition has recognised and celebrated the future wave of Kiwi film-making talent. Past winners include Hollywood superstar Taika Waititi and Tom Sainsbury, who went on to produce his first feature film Loop Track in 2023.

Paton said being part of the challenge was the best thing you could do over a weekend, with creatives across all fields needed - from camera operators to costume designers, sound engineers to actors.

The participants don’t know the genre (thriller/romance etc) they will be shooting in until the start of the competition. All the creative aspects - writing, shooting, editing and adding a musical soundtrack - must occur within the 48-hour window beginning on the Friday evening at 7pm and ending on Sunday at 7pm.

To add to the mayhem, they must also include some random elements. In previous years, these have included lines of dialogue, props, characters and special camera moves.

Over 500 teams of filmmakers enter each year, with around 10,000 shorts produced via the competition over the years.

The shoot weekend is coming up on May 17-19.