What do David Hasselhoff (Baywatch), Daisy Ridley (Star Wars) and Gareth Edwards (Rogue One) have in common? They have all taken part in the SCI-FI LONDON 48-HOUR Film Challenge...
This August, SCI-FI-LONDON FILM FESTIVAL are once again launching their stellar, 14th annual, film competition. The 48-HOUR Film Challenge takes place on the weekend of 10th September 2022 for filmmakers across the globe.
The event started in 2008 after SCI-FI-LONDON festival’s director, Louis Savy, visited lots of different festivals and spoke to filmmakers - he kept asking "have you made a sci-fi movie?". Mostly the answer was “we don’t have that kind of budget“.
Shane Carruth reportedly made Primer for $7000 – the main special effect was the innards of a washing machine. Surely, like any good film, you just need the right script, great actors and a good sound mix. If you want to make Avatar, sure you need 200 million dollars, but you can make sci-fi with very little budget and VFX - for example, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
The challenge’s first winner in 2008 was none other than filmmaker Gareth Edwards - with short film Factory Farmed. His debut feature, the multi-award-winning Monsters, was green-lit by Vertigo Films - after they saw his winning 48-hour short film and subsequently developed a feature with him.
Gareth’s subsequent films include Godzilla (2014) and Star Wars: Rogue One. Other previous winners have included Vince Knight, who directed Blue Season (2010), featuring a fresh-faced Daisy Ridley, and Oscar Sharp - director of It's No Game (2017), starring David Hasselhoff.