​48 Hours to make a short film!

​We are excited to be hosting a 48 Hour Filmmaking Challenge this year! This fun adrenaline filled experience will be a true challenge of filmmakers' creativity, efficiency and teamwork to make a film in 48 hours. The race against the clock starts at Noon on Friday October 2 and filmmakers have until Noon on Sunday October 4 to finish their films. That includes writing, shooting and editing!
The films will be premiered online as part of CINEFEST on the Sunday evening at 7pm!
Guidelines:
- Crews of up to 4 filmmakers can sign up.
- You may cast as many actors as you want.
- The movie MUST BE shot on Vancouver Island.
- The movie MUST BE family friendly. No course language, sexual content, or over-the-top violence.
​- No branded content.
- No copyrighted music. All music MUST BE original music, public domain music, or independent music that the filmmaker has permission to use.
- A Key Phrase that must be integrated into your film will be revealed to the filmmakers at Noon on the Friday when the challenge begins.
- A $100 Production Grant will be provided to each team upon completion of your 48 hour film on Sunday.
Because we have received a grant from BC Arts Council for our film festival but are not organizing our regular film festival at the Avalon Theatre, we have decided to use the funds from the grant this year to help filmmaker produce their 48 hour films. Each filmmaking team participating in the challenge will receive a $100 production grant!

Films will be judged by a jury of three judges. Winners will be announced at the end of CINEFEST. There will be cash prizes for first, second and third place!

​We are only accepting 10 teams! Do you want to do the challenge? Registration required by September 30!
UPDATE! We are now able to accept 5 additional teams to the challenge thanks to the support of the Vancouver Island North Film Commission who is sponsoring the challenge and providing the funding to give a $100 production grant to 5 more teams! Thank you INfilm!

Meet our Judges!

Leah Mallen
Leah Mallen has produced film, television, and digital content for over twenty years. Her past credits have garnered many awards and accolades including a Best Short Film Award at the Cannes Film Festival’s Critic’s Week, a Best Documentary Film at the Zurich Film Festival, and multiple Best Apps Awards at Kidscreen. She has distributed her content around the world, including such platforms and broadcasters such as HBO, Sundance, Hulu, BBC, ARTE, CBC and Knowledge Network. She was one of six international producers selected to attend the Binger Film Lab in Amsterdam, is a graduate of the Canadian Film Centre’s Producer Lab, and has chaired or sat on many creative boards, including the Hot Docs International Film Festival board, DOCBC, and Vancouver’s Cinematheque. She also produces the Architecture and Design Film Festival in Vancouver which just launched its first year.
Harrison Houde
Harrison began creating original digital content on YouTube in 2008, and quickly gained recognition amongst the early YouTube community. Before he transitioned to traditional content in 2012 he gained over 17,000 subscribers, and over a million total views.

Harrison has acted in over 100 episodes of television. You may have seen Harrison as Scaredy in Spooksville (2013-2014). Harrison is also known as Bowie Sherman in YTV's & Netflix original sitcom Some Assembly Required (3 seasons, 2014-2016) for which he got nominated for a Young Artist Award. His first appearance was on the big screen screen in the 20th Century Fox theatrical release of Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010) as Darren Walsh 'The Cheese Touch Kid', as well he has made appearances performing in CW's iZombie (2018), The Hollow (Netflix, 2018) and Summer of '84 (Sundance Film Festival, 2018) .

Houde continues to act, and has started a production company Houde Entertainment Inc. developing various projects he has a passion for. His films have premiered at festival de Cannes with Telefilm Canada's Not Short on Talent, TIFF Kids, Toronto Shorts International Film Festival, California's Independent Film Festival, IndiFest, and more. Harrison is currently developing his feature-length directorial debut.
Arnold Lim
Arnold Lim is an award-winning filmmaker and photojournalist, most recently winning the Telefilm Talent to Watch two years in a row, directing feature film All-in Madonna in 2019 and producing web series Best Friend Me in the spring of 2020. Arnold has been awarded The Harold Greenberg Fund Shorts to Features grant, the National Screen Institute’s Features First, a BC Arts Council grant, a BravoFACT grant and been a juror and programmer for the Vancouver Asian Film Festival and Victoria Film Festival.