HP48Hours: And the Winner is...

HP48Hours: And the Winner is...

At our glittering celebration of cinema at The Civic, Auckland, we are thrilled to present the 2018 Grand National Champion Award to Chillybox (Auckland) forPepTok, a Technological Thriller about a woman living with an earpiece device that gives her pep talks throughout her day – this talented team also winning Best Director - Thomas Sainsbury and Best Performer - Kate Simmonds.

“Super tidy, gorgeously well shot, compact, beautifully acted, stylised film.” Grand Final Judge - Aidee Walker

“Your social media thread comes to life in this believable and surreal tech thriller - PepTok.” National Operations - Vanessa Patea

HP48Hours Founder, Ant Timpson, gives a specialty award each year with 2018 celebrating the Best Solo/Duo - honouring the courageous teams that enter with only one or two people in their team. This award goes to hard-core Wellington animation team Squint Eastwood for ZA by Sam Harris featuring Arjun Hazard. This team entered as an out of town team from London. ZA is a cautionary tale for foodies, about a pizza that is so good, it opens up a portal to hell.

“Each year the solo/duo teams push themselves to the utter limits, using every skill set they have and losing precious brain cells from the lack of sleep. I’m stoked to put up $1000 to support this sub-group of extreme filmmakers!” - Ant Timpson

Wellington team Temple of Nut takes home the awards for Best Script, Best Editor, and Best Ultra Film - given to veteran teams (5 years+) who opt in for an extra challenge. This year, Ultra teams had to feature children or animals as the main character(s). Master stars Hewison’s adorable dog Winchester whose family is consumed by a Monster.

To acknowledge, encourage and support more female directors into the competition, Gaylene Preston and WIFT are proud to have award Best Female Director to Alison Titulaer (Bay of Plenty/Coromandel) for her film Manawa Bay with a $1000 cash prize.

“The director shows real ability in eliciting a nuanced performance from a well cast actor. Then paces the film around that performance so that small psychological details make a compelling whole, with sympathetic cinematography shining through. Everyone does good work which is the sign of a strong vision in the directors chair.” Gaylene Preston

We had 163 school teams enter the competition and the competition is tough. We are acknowledging our best school team with a $1000 national prize and this year it goes to Wellington High Year 12 team for their film, Slept in, set in post-apocalyptic Wellington on the last day on earth.

Judged by 18 national and international judges, 17 awards and NZ$100k prizes of cash and services/product are up for grabs and the judges were impressed and inspired:

“What a delight this was to be a part of, such magical movies, and a good reminder that people making anything in more than 48-hours have no excuse to make anything less interesting and passionate and thoughtful and fun than what your filmmakers did.” - Alexandra Heller-Nicholas (International Judge)

And the winners are:

Grand National Champion - PepTok by Chillybox (Auckland)
Grand National Runner-up - Hero by Blood and Bone (Christchurch)
Grand National 2nd Runner-up - Red Touch Yellow by PickleThugs (Auckland)

Ant Timpson's Best Solo/Duo Award
Squint Eastwood (London/Wellington) - ZA by Sam Harris featuring Arjun Hazard
Best Ultra
Temple of Nut (Wellington) - Master by Dean Hewison & Richard Falkner
The Gaylene Preston and WIFT Best Female Director Award
Tinker Tailor (Bay of Plenty) - Manawa Bay by Alison Titulaer

Best Director
Chillybox (Auckland) - PepTok by Thomas Sainsbury
Best School Team
Wellington High Year 12 (Wellington) - Slept in
Best Performer
Chillybox (Auckland) - Kate Simmonds for PepTok
Best Script
Temple of Nut (Wellington) - Dean Hewison & Richard Falkner for Master
Best Cinematography
R&R (Auckland) - Daniela Conforte for Marks
Best Production Design
Super Furious Ninja Dragon (Dunedin) - Steve Woller for Office Fighter
Best Animation/VFX
I Love Loops (Auckland)- Recess(es)
Best Editing
Temple of Nut (Wellington) - Dean Hewison for Master
Best Sound Design
Super Furious Ninja Dragon (Dunedin) - Nick McGrath for Office Fighter
Best Original Score/Song
Through the Lens Films (Taranaki)- Hannah Collinson & Melanie Bishop for The story of a decade

Best Use Of Puddle - Raw Washed Arabica (Wellington) - Compress
Best Use Of Door Slam- Kratos (Gisborne)- The Great Great Mistake
Best Use Of Shadow or Silhouette- Cinetrance (Wellington) - Glitch
Best Use Of Genre - Watson and Cricket Productions (Dunedin) - Lizard Does Earth (Monster Movie)

“I’m always amazed by what the teams come up with and this year’s films are insanely good! You have a hard time believing that they have been made in 48-hours. Many of these films could easily have a life beyond the competition, like 2017 winner Cool Story Bro, which is featuring in the NZIFF this year.” - Vanessa Patea, HP48Hours National Operations

Our congratulations and admiration to all 558 teams who registered from 7 regions across Aotearoa for another epic HP48Hours of furious filmmaking. We salute you!

See you for another round of furious filmmaking in April/May 2019!

#HP48
GRAND WINNER VIDEO: Chillybox (Auckland) Peptok
https://vimeo.com/278294532

ALL FINALIST VIDEOS:
https://vimeo.com/48hours

© Scoop Media