The Buffalo 48 Hour Film Project film festival features film works that have been written, produced, and filmed in the span of 24 hours. The films are between 4 and 7 minutes long, and they all have one thing in common – each of the filmmakers was given an equal playing field, with no distinct advantages. The filmmakers are assigned a genre (drawn from a hat), a character, a prop, and line of dialogue, and the participants build the film around the assigned criteria. The results can be outrageous, or ridiculous, or inspiring… you never know what the heck you’re going to get when you set these types of time restrictions and limited parameters. The 48 Hour Film Project is not just taking place in Buffalo, it’s actually in over 130 cities throughout the world, and is considered “the world’s oldest and largest timed filmmaking competition.”
Once the films are produced, they are screened at local theaters (North Park Theatre in Buffalo). The films that do the best in their hometown cities go on to be screened at Filmapalooza, where the creators get to rub shoulders with a lot of other people in the film industry. Ultimately there can be only one – the film team that comes away with the international title of Best Film, and a screening at the Cannes Film Festival 2020 Short Film Corner.
But before you get ahead of yourself, you’ve got to start somewhere. It’s time to register for the 2019 Buffalo 48 Hour Film Project.