Team Puppy Guts from Wellington have won the V48 Hours Grand Final with their short F*Dance.

The short (produced and directed by newcomer Corie Geerders) was chosen as one of three wildcards by Peter Jackson to compete against the six regional finalists. The runners up were also a wildcard entry and last year's winners, Team Lense Flare, for their time travel short Beyond Belief.

Peter Jackson said the winning short from Puppy Guts was "Inventive and, smart - a very difficult genre, delivered with clever visual story-telling. Very little dialogue, but good use of sound and well-thought-out visual invention conveys the story well. Very funny references. Not the slickest film made this year, but the ideas and level of entertainment are what matters. Lot of fun."Team Puppy Guts from Wellington have won the V48 Hours Grand Final with their short F*Dance.

The short (produced and directed by newcomer Corie Geerders) was chosen as one of three wildcards by Peter Jackson to compete against the six regional finalists. The runners up were also a wildcard entry and last year's winners, Team Lense Flare, for their time travel short Beyond Belief.

Peter Jackson said the winning short from Puppy Guts was "Inventive and, smart - a very difficult genre, delivered with clever visual story-telling. Very little dialogue, but good use of sound and well-thought-out visual invention conveys the story well. Very funny references. Not the slickest film made this year, but the ideas and level of entertainment are what matters. Lot of fun."Team Puppy Guts didn't even know they were in the Grand Final until the day of the final. It was the first time a team outside Auckland have won and the first time a film in the genre of Dance movie has won.

Watch the winning entry on YouTube.

Corie Geerders and his team receive a prize package worth over $60,000 (the biggest prize pool of any film competition in NZ) which includes everything you need to make your own film - cash courtesy of Wingnut Films and the NZ Film Commission, a Panasonic plasma screen, audio services from Auckland Audio, travel from Intrepid Travel, recording services from York St Studio, services from Park Rd Post and movie tickets from www.flicks.co.nz

This is the first time two wildcard films have taken out both top prizes. Lense Flare are headed by Johnny Barker, well-known to NZ audiences as Shortland St's Ferndale Strangler. Lense Flare's prize package is worth a whopping $15,000

"The caliber of this years entries were outstanding", says Ant Timpson, founder of 48Hours. "The international judges were super impressed with what they saw and the voting was very close between the top 4 movies"

The winning short was chosen by an international judging panel of film experts including 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.

Other winners from the short films night of nights are:

Panasonic Best Cinematography: Team Del Sur (Auckland)
Images Post Sexiest Short Award : team Sinistral
Nandos Spiciest Scene: Just Panda wth their film PERFECT
Best Damn Teen Film: Donnie and the Darkos
Best All Girl Film : Oi Girl

More than 600 filmmaking teams entered this year's competition - and had just one weekend to make a short film. All the films were made in 48hours and all included the same prop, character and line of dialogue that they received minutes before the 48 hour period began.

Filmmakers don't know until the last minute what genre (thriller/romance etc) they will be shooting. All creativity: writing, shooting, editing and adding a musical soundtrack, must occur within the 48 hour window. Entry is open to anyone from first timers to professional film makers.

The regional finalists were.

AUCKLAND
Fractured Radius - THE END - Drama

HAMILTON
Guerrilla Monkeys - SUM OF ALL PARTS - Horror

GISBORNE
Kaiti Hill - le dernier jour de Tony (Tony's Last Day) - Drama

WELLINGTON
Smashing Pants - DARLENE - Juvenile Delinquent

CHRISTCHURCH
Spooce Media: The Real McCoy Agent Post: Or How I Stopped Being Pretentious And Learned To Love Cliche

DUNEDIN
The Dangly Gruffnuts - TWO BODIES ONE NIGHT - Adventure -

PETER JACKSON WILDCARDS

Team Lense Flare - BEYOND BELIEF - Time Travel
Goodfellas - IN SEARCH OF BIGFOOT - Animal
Puppy Guts - F*DANCE - Dance

04/07/08