A nearly nine-minute-long video opens on a shot of a head of broccoli, transitioning to the vegetable cooking in a frying pan. In the next scene, viewers quickly learn the plot of the short movie: Two children scheme to stop their parents from taking them to the Broccoli and Brush Your Teeth Festival.
Out of eight submissions, this is the winning film, “Heist,” from the Forest Park Arts Alliance’s first 48-hour film challenge last year.
Submissions for this year’s contest close March 31. Those who sign up will write, produce, film and edit a short movie from April 12 at 7 p.m. to April 14 at 7 p.m. On April 20, the Arts Alliance will host a red carpet gala to show the films.
“People who came were like, ‘Oh my God, this is the best thing ever,’” said Lin Beribak, Forest Park Arts Alliance’s vice president.
In the 48-hour film challenge, middle school or high school students will create five-minute films, while adults will craft 10-minute ones. The cost of registration is $10 for student teams and $25 for adult teams.
Teams can include up to six people and must use a provided prop, line of dialogue and one of two or three genre options. Last year, teams pitched a film genre when they registered, then the Arts Alliance assigned genres to teams.
“Some teams were really hampered by that,” Beribak said. But while the genre options are changing this year, the Arts Alliance will still provide a prop and line of dialogue.
In last year’s winning film, the prop of a frying pan appears in one of the opening shots. One of the video’s main child actors utters the assigned line of dialogue, “Please tell me you heard that too,” into her shirt microphone to the neighborhood kids helping with the heist, when her mom’s meeting ends early. This threatens to reveal her in the act of stealing the minivan’s keys, locked in an air-tight glass dome that only opens to the sound of her parents’ voices, so that the family can’t take the car to the Broccoli and Brush Your Teeth Festival.
This year, two teams have signed up for the challenge so far: Pfaff & Pfurious, last year’s winners — who were awarded a $100 gift certificate for the Brown Cow Ice Cream Parlor — and another team who also participated last year.
At a red carpet gala April 20 at 7 p.m., the Arts Alliance will show the films at St. Bernardine’s Fearon Hall. While this isn’t a black tie event, many of last year’s attendees dressed to impress.
Beribak said that one boy around 8 years old, who was on a team with his father, “came in with a little dark sports jacket, pants and a bow tie, and he was just so excited to have his movie,” she said. “It was a great community, family atmosphere.”
Last year at the gala, the Arts Alliance showed four films, then brought up those teams to ask them questions. While the Arts Alliance counted ballots for the people’s choice award, the rest of the teams came on stage for a Q&A.
“The filmmakers were really glad to get that attention,” Beribak said. “All of them said, ‘We would do this again.’”
This year, there will be three awards: one for the best student film, one for the best adult film, and the people’s choice award. Tickets for the gala will go on sale April 1.
You don’t have to live in Forest Park to participate in the 48-hour film challenge. Register by March 31 at https://forestparkarts.org/48-hour-film-festival.