What We're About

Who We Are

The 48 Hour Film Project is a wild and sleepless weekend in which you and a team make a movie—write, shoot, edit and score it—in just 48 hours. On Friday night, you get a character, a prop, a line of dialogue and a genre, all to include in your movie. 48 hours later, the movie must be complete. Then it will show at a local theater, usually in the next week.

In 2007, some 30,000 filmmakers made films in 55 cities around the world. You can see press about us here or watch our films here. We'll be back and even bigger in 2008!

Our Mission

The 48 Hour Film Project's mission is to advance filmmaking and promote filmmakers. Through its festival/competition, the Project encourages filmmakers and would-be filmmakers to get out there and make movies. The tight deadline of 48 hours puts the focus squarely on the filmmakers—emphasizing creativity and teamwork skills. While the time limit places an unusual restriction on the filmmakers, it is also liberating by putting an emphasis on "doing" instead of "talking."

Our History

Back in May 2001, Mark Ruppert came up with a crazy idea to try to make a film in 48 hours. He quickly enlisted his filmmaking partner, Liz Langston, and several other DC filmmakers to form their own teams and join him in this experiment. The big question back then was: "Would films made in only 48 hours even be watchable?"

The answer was a resounding yes, and now seven years later and with more than 100 competitions having taken place around the world, it is amazing to consider the success of the Project. 2008 marks the 7th time we've visited Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York and Austin, and the 9th time for DC.

Our smallest team has consisted of one person who sets up the camera then runs around to be "on-camera". Our largest team to date was a team from Richmond with 108 people. We've had about 7,000 teams in the Project over the years, and at 15 people per team, that translates to roughly 100,000 people who have answered the call to come on out and make a movie.