Peter Jackson Reveals His Wildcards

For Immediate Release:
June 18, 2008

PRESS RELEASE

Peter Jackson Reveals His Wildcards

Press Release.
June 18, 2008

The 'V' 48HOURS is officially the largest filmmaking competition in the Southern Hemisphere. This year attracted 600 teams and 10,000 people participating throughout New Zealand. Six hundred short films were shown in cinemas nationwide to enthusiastic audiences. The event now in its sixth year, is drawing to a thrilling conclusion. On July 3rd at 8.30pm on C4 Television, it all comes down to nine Filmmakers competing for a Grand Prize package worth over $100,000.

The two hour TV special produced by Two Heads will be jammed packed with interviews, behind the scenes action, spotlights on Animation, Maori and Teen teams, special awards and nine complete short films.

Peter Jackson has selected his three Wildcard entries for this years 'V' 48HOURS Grand National Final. His choices will compete alongside the City Winners from Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Gisborne, Christchurch and Dunedin.

The first Wildcard was made by Team Lense Flare with a time travel short called BEYOND BELIEF. An apt title for the team who were also chosen last year as a Wildcard and ended going on to be crowned National Grand Champions. All eyes will be on the Grand Final to see if they can pull off the biggest back-to-back victory ever. The two additional Wildcards will be revealed during the Grand Final.

There is strong competition coming from three-time Grand Finalists Smashing Pants, a Wellington team who could live the ultimate cliché and make it third time lucky. They’ll have to get past some experienced teams, like six year veterans of the competition, Fractured Radius, a team coined after their director broke his wrist in their debut short back in 2003. And then there are the sleeping giants, the unassuming and kooky Guerilla Monkeys from Hamilton and the unknown but extremely assured Spooce Media from Christchurch. Teams that have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Organiser Ant Timpson says “it’s probably the most interesting and diverse Grand Final we’ve ever had, I can normally predict the winner but this year I can categorically state I don’t have a freaking clue who is going to take the crown”.

An international judging panel of film experts will decide just who will be the Grand Champion for 2008. The judges include Mimi Brody from UCLA Film Archive, Livia Bloom the curator of Moving Image Centre in NYC, Michael Koller from the Melbourne Cinematheque, Doug Jones from LA Film Festival, Tim League from Fantastic Fest and Mitch Davis from Fantasia Film Festival.

One of the nine shorts below one will be crowned Grand National Champ 2008.

- The End by Fractured Radius (Auckland)
- Sum Of All Parts by Guerilla Monkeys (Hamilton)
- Le dernier jour de Tony (Tony's Last Day) by Kaiti Hill (Gisborne/Tairawhiti)
- Darlene by Smashing Pants (Wellington)
- The Real McCoy Agent Post: Or How I Stopped Being Pretentious And Learned To Love Cliche by Spooce Media (Christchurch)
- Two Bodies, One Night by Dangly Gruffnuts (Dunedin)
- Beyond Belief by Lense Flare (Peter Jackson Wildcard)
+ Two more Wildcards revealed during the Grand Final.

The 2008 'V' 48HOURS - C4, JULY 3RD, 8.30pm

If home viewers don’t agree with our esteemed Judges - they can have their say by free voting on the C4 website immediately after the Grand Final.

48HOURS OFFICIAL WEBSITE
www.48hours.co.nz
Hundreds of teams compete. Hundreds

ends