Creativity often inspires us when we are backed into a corner or, at the very least, short on time. Since its debut in 2001, the 48 Hour Film Project has seen more than 200 cities in over 45 countries rise to the fun but challenging prospect of producing short films within the titular timeframe, culminating in the chance to debut their work at the Cannes International Film Festival.

For 2024, the 48 Hour Film Project is back, this time with a Sci-Fi flair, coinciding with May the 4th (Star Wars Day), meaning, instead of featuring different genres for teams to work with, participants were instead asked to flex their creative muscle and explore other genres while still being within the overarching realm of Science Fiction. Additionally, the participants were given the same prop, character and line of dialogue to incorporate into their final showings, which for this year’s event consisted of a coin(s) and the line, “Mistakes were made.”

Amongst the 13 films showcased, CGMagazine got invited to the Group B or the Group Bravo block for this year’s 48-Hour Film Project to view the works of team Tripoddity, a group consisting of people who have previously worked with each other during last year’s 48-hour showcase. The teams include SCOPE Entertainment, Moon Baboon, and Sidebar Pictures, which are led by Kirill Kripak, Dennis Logan, and Dean Qureshi.

“For 2024, the 48 Hour Film Project is back, this time with a Sci-Fi flair, coinciding with May the 4th (Star Wars Day).”

Not only did the trio work together during last year’s showing in some award-winning projects, but the three are also part of a band called Even Oddity — now under a new banner for the 48 Hour Film Project screening, which took place on May the 25th. The fruits of their labour have resulted in three short films CGMagazine had the opportunity to watch, which consisted of Murder on Megastation 48 from Moon Baboon Productions, Buyer Beware from SideBar Pictures, and Stellar Travel II: Pizza-Vodka World from Scope-Entertainment.

Although the three short films were independent of each other, they fittingly also shared some fun elements that tied them together, particularly Murder on Megastation 48 and Stellar Travel II: Pizza-Vodka World, which shared some similar elements and characters in a fun, tongue-in-cheek manner taking place primarily in the far reaches of Space, while Buyer Beware instead told the story of a rouge sex robot turned hostile in a silly but not so distant future, making it feel somewhat more grounded and confined to a more pedestrian setting.

“Murder on Megastation 48 and Stellar Travel II: Pizza-Vodka World delighted with their shared characters and quirky space adventures.”

Other films during the showcase featured everything from evil robots from the future to space aliens, beer, and copious amounts of flatulence — all shot using cameras that exhibited various degrees of quality, ultimately making for a genuinely good time reminiscent of YouTube during its heyday of early content creators taking to the still burgeoning platform.

After the screening, participants were asked to vote for their favourite entry via a quick survey site. For those interested in seeing the winners for this year’s event, the best films selected from all groups will be showcased on June 8th, 2024, at 1:00 PM at The Revue Cinema in Toronto.