Toronto Film Challenge

Our last challenge was in fall of 2011, and was horror themed. We screened at the Toronto Underground Cinema. The Best Picture winner was “Anamnesis” by The Dark Matter team.

Other winners were as follows:

Best Director: Damian Weston & Pete Williams (Anamnesis)

Best Cinematography: Pete Williams (Anamnesis)

Best Actor: Ryan Hollyman (The Killer Method)

Best Actress: Kelly Ames (Anamnesis)

Best Editing: Richard Rotter (The Killer Method)

Best Gore: Cleaver

Audience Choice: The Killer Method

The Toronto Film Challenge will be celebrating its SUPER SWEET 16th competition with a 48 Hour Film Challenge. Starting on April 20th, and running to the 22nd, competitors will have 48 hours to make a short film. We’ll screen the entries, judge them, and award prizes. More details will follow… but mark your calendars!!

Congrats to Miniature Donkey Productions for winning Best Actor and Audience Choice Awards!!

Fifteen teams started. Only nine finished before the 48 hour deadline. Three are still unaccounted for. A weekend of no sleep,  cheesy props, and horror film making will be on display on Tuesday, October 4th at 7pm. Tickets are available for $10.  Awards will be presented to the top films, directors, and actors… There will also be an audience choice award so bring your friends and family – ALL FILMS WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR AUDIENCE CHOICE.

So come on down to the Toronto Underground Cinema – 186 Spadina Ave. and see 12 short horror films…  the result of all your hard work. Some of these films will be pretty gorey, bloody, and scary so please be prepared!

We’re pleased to announce that this fall’s 48 Hour Horror Film Challenge will partner with the Toronto After Dark Film Festival. The eight night festival features several screenings of Horror, Sci-Fi, Cult and Action films. The good news is, the winner of the Fall 48 Hour Toronto Film Challenge will be featured at one of the TADFF screenings at the Bloor Cinema, with a chance for the filmmakers to introduce and discuss their film.

Also, TADFF will be supplying us with an individual from their committee to act on our judges panel.

Finally, the dates for the fall challenge have been set. Mark your calendar for September 23-25. As usual, it will start on the Friday evening at 8pm, and the finish line will be 48 Hours at 8pm on Sunday. Registration is now open!!

The Toronto Film Challenge would like to remind you that the next scheduled event will be in September/October. It will be a horror themed 48-hour challenge. Dates will be confirmed shortly, but start assembling your teams! The 48 Hour rules are the same as usual:

• 10 team members or less
• Final film is 6-8 minutes (including credits)
• Writing, shooting, editing, and submission must be completed within 48 hours… location scouting, music, and planning can be prepared ahead of time.

The catch with this one is that it’s “horror” themed. We’re using the term loosely, so your film can include anything like:

• gorey murder
• zombies
• psychological thrillers
• monsters
• thrashers
• creepy children
• screaming girls getting chased through the woods, then tripping, allowing the slowly walking axe/chainsaw -weilding villain to catch up and disembowel her.
• angry puppies
• … etc…

Last Wednesday, we held the screenings for the Spring 24 Hour Toronto Film Challenge. All the competitors, their friends, and families rolled into the TIFF Bell Lightbox to screen 24 films and give away some prizes. Our hosts at the Lightbox were very accomodating and it was a thrill to see all the films on the big screen in Cinema 1… actually the biggest theatre they have at the new TIFF building.

When all was said and done, there were some amazing films, some hilarious films, some bizarre films and everything in between. Our judges had some work cut out for them. Jon Taylor of CTV Digital Content, Award Winning Director/Editor RT!, and entertainment journalist David Friend rated all the films and we handed out the hardware.

And the winners were….

1st – ShortaDay – Triple A (6-8 Hrs. at Alter Ego Post – ~$6000)

2nd – BIAS Productions – Queen of Clubs ($750 at Cinequip Whites)

3rd – The Chops – The Shift ($500 at Red Labs)

Audience Choice – Team Fanwick – The Trial (Free Entry to the Fall 48 Hr Challenge, $250 at Cinequip Whites)

25 teams started… 23 got in under the wire. One more was a couple minutes late. And the last one… is still unaccounted for. Either way, judging from the Twitters, the emails, and the conversations we had with the teams, everybody had a great time competing in the 24 Hour Toronto Film Challenge.

We kicked off at noon on Saturday, when every team grabbed a challenge pack containing a line of dialogue, a prop, a location, and a theme. They had 24 hours to write, shoot, edit, and submit a 4-6 minute film. Through technical difficulties, group personality conflicts, and in at least one case, an altercation with a prostitute, our competitors hammered out a film, and stayed up for 30 hours straight in some cases.

Special Props go out to Team #8 – S&H for being the first to submit. They got in shortly after 11am, and the other 22 teams who beat the deadline were in the following 45-50 minutes. Team #20 “Meal Ticket” was the closest to the wire, handing in their film one minute and 30 seconds before noon.

We hope you all had a great time, made a film you’re happy with, and learned something about yourself and your craft along the way! I look forward to seeing them all on the big screen…

Every film that was submitted will be screened at the TIFF Bell Lightbox theatre on April 20th. Tickets will be available at the door for $10 each. Awards will be presented after.

As of 9pm tonight, registration is closed. We had several teams sign up on the final evening, and closed with 25 registered teams. Including DNP films, the group who won an entry in the Fall 48-Hour Challenge, we’re looking at 26 teams! Now we can look forward to the 24 Hour Toronto Film Challenge, starting at noon on Saturday.

An information email was sent out today, and that information is copied under the “About” tab above, or linked here.

Don’t forget! We’ll be screening at the TIFF Bell Lightbox Theatre on April 20th. Tickets are included for competitors, and $10 for guests. All family and friends are welcome, but there are a limited number of tickets available!

We’d like to thank our sponsors at Alter Ego, RedLab, CinequipWhites, and Parachute Sound.

We are pleased to announce that the 24 Hour Toronto Film Challenge screenings will be held at the TIFF Bell Lighbox cinema at the corner of King and John St. The new centre is home to all things related to Canadian film and specifically, the Toronto International Film Festival.

Our screenings will take place on Wednesday, April 20th at 7pm. We will screen all the entries and award prizes for the top 3 picks, and Audience Choice. Tickets will be free for competitors, and $10 for guests.

The 24 Hour Challenge runs from April 9 to April 10. Registration is open.