The judging panel

It was an early start as over seventy Filmmaking students met in the Silverstone Building at 7.30am on a Saturday for the start of the 36-hour filmmaking challenge.

The event, organised as part of the CineCity film festival, started with the draw in which groups received a prop, a location and a mystery parameter. These included many familiar Brighton locations alongside props such as a candle, a pitch fork, wind chimes and a bunch of grapes. The students also had to get 'CineCity' into their film.

Students worked in teams to produce 5-minute films that were screened on Sunday evening at Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts (ACCA) in front of a public audience and a panel of judges. 

The judging panel included University of Sussex Vice Chancellor Adam Tickell, ACCA's Creative Director Laura McDermott, Head of School for Media, Film and Music Kate O’Riordan, and former filmmaking student (now a Technician Demonstrator) Nikoline Gjoertz.

The Vice Chancellor commented that '[the students] produced some amazing work, variously funny, poignant and moving'.

Co-organiser Joanna Callaghan said, 'Congratulations to all those who participated in the 36-hour filmmaking challenge. We had a packed audience and the judges had a tough job of deciding the winners.'
 
The winners were:
Best Film - Gorillas in the Mist for their film ‘Despondent’.
Best Effort - The Fantastic Five for ‘In the Moment’.
An honourable mention went to Just for Fun for ‘Mediator’.

Tom Chester from Gorillas in the Mist said, 'The challenge proved to be exactly what it says on the tin - a challenge! Nevertheless, it was a fantastic experience and we were able to push our creativity, push ourselves physically and engage with so many other fantastic filmmakers.'

Watch the completed films