Grand National Champion and National Winners 2024
Posted 26th July 2024
And the WINNER of the 2024 Vista Foundation 48Hours is...
CHICKEN by NUGGETS!
After a well-attended Grand Finals Event at the Embassy Theatre in Wellington, we are thrilled to present the 2024 Grand National Champion Award to ‘Chicken’ by Nuggets (Kirikiriroa / Hamilton)
Landing the splatter genre, it is an incredible national win from the Kirikiriroa/Hamilton Region, with a new-comer team called Nuggets and their film Chicken. This team is made up of mostly first-time competitors and they burst onto the screen with some inventive camera work, performance energy and embrace their genre to take the audience on an incredible ride.
Nuggets was the first drama film that this group has ever made. An astounding achievement to take home the top prize, be handpicked as a Sir Peter Jackson wildcard and win the Viva La Dirt League Comedy Award! “It really had a classic 48Hours vibe, we were laughing the whole way through, the fight scene was amazing and intense and there was lots of blood! It was incredible.” - Viva La Dirt League
A huge congratulations from all of us at 48Hours HQ!
Grand National Runner Up 2024
Sweets by Disqualified Tim (Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington team)
A man catches a train to buy sweets in a landscape created using just images of him.
A monster film made entirely of Tim’s body using an A.I programme called ComfyUi, a custom trained image generator. Tim is a long-time Wellington-based competitor who is known for his innovation and incredible sets. This year he stripped it back (literally) using no costumes, no sets and competing solo. He creates a simple tale of a traveller in the search for sweets set in an intriguing world made of A.I generated body parts. Disqualified Tim also takes home the best production design award and the L’affare incredibly strange award.
Key team member: Tim Hamilton
Grand National Second Runner Up
Loose End by Great Lake Film Society (Taupō team)
A man loses his grip on his lifeline and follows a new path.
Another Sir Peter Jackson Wildcard, Loose End is a fish-out-of-water short set in a surreal sci-fi world, where the rules are simple - stay attached to your string, but what happens when there's a loose end. This stylistic and comedic short was made with a team of Taupō locals all contributing to the script, design, acting, and production.
“Being able to come together with all of the teams, seeing their films on the big screen, and celebrating what we’ve all come up with together is a privilege.” Cameron Walton.
Key team members: Joel Corbett, Denise Edmonds, Angela Alexander, Cameron Walton, Kerence Stephen, Dervla Murtogh, Sarah Waller, Curtis Painter, Roy Bowers.
Check out all of the award winners here