48Hours: The top 14 go to battle

A scene from Auckland Team Popup's Sex Crime.

Here, announced for the first time, are the 14 finalists in the Rialto Channel 48Hours 2013 film competition. These will be the teams vying for the big prizes in the contest's Grand Final on July 16.

The list contains the finalists chosen by the international panel of judges out of the films that made the grade in the seven regional finals - plus there are three wildcard finalists picked by Sir Peter Jackson who chooses his outside favourites in the competition every year.

This year the international judging panel includes Scott Foundas (Variety Chief Critic), Nacho Vigalondo (Oscar nominated Spanish filmmaker), Jarod Neece (SXSW senior programmer), Erik Kohn (Indiewire), Evan Katz (director Cheap Thrills), and Lodge Kerrigan (director, Homeland).

The grand national champ wins a $10,000 cash grant from the New Zealand Film Commission, a $600 cash grant from Wingnut Films, $5000 lighting hire from PLS and $15,000 worth of post-production at Envy Studios with runners-up also receiving cash grants and equipment.

A record-breaking 807 teams entered this year, the 11th annual competition to create a short film in a set selected in a draw at the beginning of the filming weekend. Each film had to feature compulsory elements including an insomniac character named "Vic Meyer"and the line "did you hear that?"

NZ Herald Online will live stream the Grand Final in full here.

Grand Finalists

We Might Have to Do Something
Team: Botham Spies of Auckland
Genre: Crime
Two boys and a baby carry out a daring heist.

The Caretaker
Team: Del Sur of Auckland
Genre: Horror
Don't make Mr Smith sleep, you won't like him when he's sleeping.

Hibernation
Team: Egghouse of Auckland
Genre: Obsessive relationship
A hunter chases a kill, his prey searches for a bed, while a kiwi simply wants a tree to roost in.

Sex Crime
Team: Popup of Auckland
Genre: Crime
A fool virgin, his rat-faced mate and a charitable hooker; someone's going to get shafted.

I Got Robots
Team: Chess Club of Auckland
Genre: Robot
Flatmate wanted, must like mad scientists and robot slaves.

Sleep Clinic
Team: Dr Jeckyll of Auckland
Genre: Musical
Mr Meyer's counselling session descends into vocoder hell before ending in a snooze fest.

Is Love Enough?
Team: The Eh Team of Christchurch
Genre: Obsessive relationship
The digital changeover gives a man an 80s earworm and a love spanning generations.

We Run the Night
Team: SML Productions of Dunedin
Genre: Non-dialogue
A date movie in reverse that begins at the end with added fireworks.

Bungy
Team: Kaiti Hill of Gisborne
Genre: Crime
A creepy farmer mistakes a German tourist for an easy mark.

The Sleeping Plot
Team: Traces of Nut of Wellington
Genre: Crime
Such a charming wee Dahl, butter wouldn't melt in her mouth so much as freeze.

Azanti
Team: Zebra Crossing Inc of Christchurch
Genre: Non-dialogue
A car knocks a woman into a bad headspace in a movie made using 7000 still images

Sir Peter Jackson wildcards

Broken Silence
Team: Goodfellas of Auckland
Genre: Crime
Smart, taut and unflinchingly grim with years' worth of story crammed into seven minutes.

Paralysis
Team: Hybrid Motion Pictures of Auckland
Genre: Horror
A nightcap best served chilled with black mass, candles and a dash of senseless slaughter.

Autocraniotomous
Team: Nightowls of Auckland
Genre: Race against clock
In world where sleep means an exploding head, how will you spend your last days?

Rialto Channel Rising Star

Abby Christodoullo Animazus - Hi, My Name Is...
Jolly Shrimp Co - Guinea Pig Funeral
BetterThanMike - The Journey
Kratos - The Missing Page
Moon Landing - Sleepless in Seatoun
Alterium - Silent Score
Go Go All The Time - Escalation

Canon Best Cinematography

Hybrid Motion Pictures - Paralysis
Elysium Exit - The Empath
Kaiti Hill - Bungy
Traces of Nut - The Sleeping Plot
Zebra Crossing Inc - Azanti
Electric Shoelace - That Mess in Burgundy
System 30 - Sleepless Rage

Images & Sound Sexiest Looking Short

Kaiti Hill - Bungy
Rubber Soul - Partners in Crime
SML Productions - We Run The Night
Elysium Exit - The Empath
Gatsby Goon Squad - Sweet Dreams
Adventure Artists - Hypnagogia
Just A Good Bunch of Guys - 158

AUT Best Director

SML Productions - We Run The Night
Goodfellas - Broken Silence
Traces of Nut - The Sleeping Plot
Kaiti Hill - Bungy
Rubber Soul - Partners in Crime
Elysium Exit - The Empath
The Eh Team - Is Love Enough?

NZ Herald Online Best Script

Kaiti Hill - Bungy
The Eh Team - Is Love Enough?
dr jeckyll - Sleep Clinic
Hogan Street Heroes - 20 Days of Songnia
Grazed Knee Productions - The Text
Paul is Dead To Us - Maybe the Last Time
Bros Art - Jumpstart

V Best Actor

Cowps Productions - Crazy for Vic!
Rubber Soul - Partners in Crime
The Eh Team - Is Love Enough?
Chess Club - I Got Robots
Hogan Street Heroes - 20 Days of Songnia
The Monkey Beetles - Deprived
The Lingering Llamas - Climatic

V Best Actress

Show Ponies - Transomniac: The Movie
Kaiti Hill - Bungy
BetterThanMike - The Journey
Decile One - Dischord
Cat House Films - Duty of Care
Team Del Sur - Caretaker
Traces of Nut - The Sleeping Plot

Best Editing

Kaiti Hill - Bungy
Electric Shoelace - That Mess in Burgundy
Traces of Nut - The Sleeping Plot
The Eh Team - Is Love Enough?
Hogan Street Heroes - 20 Days of Songnia
BlindVision Films - Substitution
Team Bob - Sleepless Ambition

Loop Best Song

Dream Team Misfits - Travellin' Boozeman
Hogan Street Heroes - 20 Days of Songnia
Rubber Soul - Partners in Crime
Highschool Prom Babies - Dream girl
ICW Productions - Consulting Vic Meyer
CRAB CRAB CRAB - Sleep On a Clothesline
Team Indeed - Super Hero Musical

Loop Best Score

Dream Team Misfits - Travellin' Boozeman
Traces of Nut - The Sleeping Plot
Elysium Exit - The Empath
Black History Fortnight - Unplugged
Cahoots - Faulty Goods
Digital Story - 51
Close Enough - Compotion

Best Art Direction

The Lady Bugs - City of Ellidae
Digital Story - 51
Kaiti Hill - Bungy
Just A Good Bunch of Guys - 158
Jolly Shrimp Co. - Guinea Pig Funeral
Dust Boot - Sleep Shepherds
AmAuteur Films - Stuck in Stockholm

Best Make Up

Half Shell - 17:09
Bentbox - The Silent Box
TBALC - Quarrelsome Heat
Stout Street Studios - And then the Light Came In...
Jan Junkies - Memory Glitch
Touching Cloth - Night Vision
Begged, Borrowed, Stolen - Mental Note

MDS Best School

Jan Junkies - Memory Glitch
Issa Gorrirra - Your Obsessed
Booty poppers - Good Intentions
Thirteen - The Stolen Rose
Orientale - [Im]mature
Pigs Guts Films - Inzombnia
Hobo Pictures - Violin't Crime

Best Animation

dr jeckyll - Sleep Clinic
Squint Eastwood - Computer Crimes
Maddog Films - Playing Your Cards Right
TESLA - Hot Piggy
My Box is on Fire - Reunion with Reality

Gaylene Preston Best Female Director

Cat House Films - Duty of Care
Orientale - [Im]mature
Booty poppers - Good Intentions
Burn the Dog - RUN
AmAuteur - Stuck in Stockholm
Paradox Films - The Introverter

Best Incredibly Strange

Santo Fernando - Apocalypstic
NiuFilm - A Man Escaped
Squashed Tomato Productions - The Dealer
Shomingkei - The Lost Samurai
Damn Hell Ass Kings - 120 hours in OSdom
Procrasti Nation - Joker
My Friend Is - Nature

Best Use Of Character

Digital Story - 51
Close Enough - Compotion
Hogan Street Heroes - 20 Days of Songnia
The Monkey Beetles - Deprived
Grrr Arrrrg Productions - Breakdown
Slapstick Surgery - Shippoptamus Wrecks
Submission Impossible - Polaroid

Best Use Of Prop

Kaiti Hill - Bungy
Marck One Productions - Ringo and Beef's Cataclysm
Spooce Media - The Appointment
Disconcerteam - Will
One Whare - Must Be Perfect
Eth Club Theven - Android and Friend
Moffilaide - Kung-Foodoo

Best Use Of Line

Rubber Soul - Partners in Crime
BattleSoup - Henchmen
Deslyxic - Cut Up
The Dark Circle - Stop 32
Commit - Rest is for the Dead
Santo Fernando - Apocalypstic
The Underdogs - The Hopeless Life of Snoz Meyer

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-TimeOut