Grand Nationals

Join us at The Embassy Theatre on October 17th, Wellington to celebrate 2026's cream of the crop of short films made in only 48 Hours.

The very best films from across the country are judged by a panel of national and international judges and screened at the Grand Final Event.

Bar open 6:00pm
Doors open 7:00pm
Show starts 7:30pm
After Party - The Tasting Room

This event will also be live-streamed for those who can't make it along on our YouTube Channel @48Hoursnz.

Judges

Cliff Curtis

With over 30 years experience in the film industry, Cliff Curtis has established himself as one of New Zealand's most successful actors and producers. In 2022, Curtis joined the ensemble cast of James Cameron's "Avatar" Sequels as "Tonowari" with the latest sequel Avatar: Ash & Fire released late last year. Current projects include Apple TV series "Chief of War" starring Jason Momoa and Season Two of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. In 2013, Curtis established Arama Pictures, dedicated to indigenous ownership through storytelling, inspired by mentors Merata Mita, Don Selwyn & Barry Barclay. Lately he has begun to diversify his focus and to leverage his acting career into more social impact projects. From in front of the camera to behind the camera, financing, sales, distribution and investment.

With the greater mission being to uplift Māori and to shift the perception of what the culture is capable of in New Zealand and globally.

"The power of the film industry is that it can literally shape the narrative and empower indigenous story tellers to lead the global industry. The dream is that Māori can enter a new phase of growth within the screen sector.

Māori can lead, secure in their ownership and governance across the full ecosystem to not only maximise returns but build a legacy that has multi-generational impact. "

In 2024, Curtis received the FIAPF Award, given by the APSA's founding partner, International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF). Curtis received the prize for outstanding achievement in film in the Asia-Pacific region.

Jen Yamato

Jen Yamato is an American film critic and journalist based in Los Angeles. She began her 20-year career as an editor at Rotten Tomatoes, where she fell in love with the art and craft of film criticism. She subsequently served as an editor at Movieline and Deadline Hollywood, then as an entertainment reporter at The Daily Beast, before covering film as a staff reporter and critic at the Los Angeles Times. A member of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, her bylines have also appeared in Variety and The Washington Post. She has covered major international film festivals and pop culture events including Sundance, SXSW, Cannes, TIFF, and Comic-Con and has done karaoke at each and every one of them. Yamato is the co-creator and co-host of the award-winning podcast Asian Enough, and is a recipient of the 2024 International Cinematographers Guild Publicists Press Award.

Amy Nicholson

Amy Nicholson is the film critic of the Los Angeles Times and host of the podcast Unspooled. She graduated with a B.A. in Film Studies and Anthropology from the University of Oklahoma and later earned a Master's in Professional Writing from USC. After interning and freelancing at LA Weekly, she served as editor-in-chief of Boxoffice Magazine before being hired as a full-time film critic at LA Weekly in 2013, a role she held until 2016, when she became chief film critic for MTV News. Her criticism has been recognized by the Los Angeles Press Club and the Association of Alternative Newsmedia , and she won the Best Online Commentary Award at the 2015 National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards for her essay on Renée Zellweger. In November 2024 she was named film critic for the Los Angeles Times, and in February 2025 she served on the international jury of the Berlin International Film Festival. She is a current on-air voice at LAist and KCRW and a member of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the National Society of Film Critics. She is the author of Tom Cruise: Anatomy of an Actor (2014), with a second book, Extra Girls, forthcoming from Simon & Schuster.

Jarod Neece

Jarod Neece is a Senior Programmer at Tribeca Enterprises in New York City, with an extensive career spanning film programming, curation, event production, marketing, and distribution. From 2002, he spent twenty years at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin as a Partner, Senior Film Programmer, and Event Producer, helping guide the festival's strategic direction with a particular emphasis on feature film and genre programming. He subsequently served as Chief Creative Officer for CURIA, an independent streaming platform focused on curated film collections, before joining Tribeca ahead of the 2023 festival. He has served as a juror or panelist at Cannes, Sundance, and TIFF, and sits on the advisory board of the Overlook Festival. He is also a co-author of the bestselling books Austin Breakfast Tacos and The Tacos of Texas, and co-hosted the PBS documentary series The Tacos of Texas and United Tacos of America on El Rey Network.

Lorcan Finnegan

Lorcan Finnegan is an Irish filmmaker, writer, and producer born in Dublin in 1979. He began his professional career in London working with Charlie Brooker's production company Zeppotron - the team behind Black Mirror - as a designer, editor, and director. He launched his filmmaking career with the supernatural short Foxes, which premiered at SXSW and won an IFTA for Best Short. His debut feature Without Name (2016), a horror-inflected mystery, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. His second feature Vivarium (2019), starring Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg, premiered at Cannes Critics' Week and won the Gan Foundation Award. Nocebo (2022), a psychological thriller starring Eva Green and Mark Strong, premiered at Sitges and became a Netflix hit. His fourth feature The Surfer (2024), starring Nicolas Cage, premiered in Official Selection at Cannes to a six-minute standing ovation.

Ben Wheatley

Ben Wheatley is an English filmmaker, editor, and animator, born in Billericay, Essex, in 1972. He began his career directing commercials and viral content before making his feature debut with Down Terrace (2009), which won the Next Wave prize at Fantastic Fest and Best UK Feature at Raindance. His reputation for genre-defying work was cemented by Kill List (2010) and Sightseers (2012), both of which swept festival awards worldwide, with Sightseers selected for Directors' Fortnight at Cannes. Subsequent films include A Field in England (2013), High-Rise (2015) - starring Jeremy Irons and Tom Hiddleston - and Free Fire (2016), which closed the BFI London Film Festival. He has also directed landmark British TV comedies including BBC3's Ideal and episodes of Doctor Who. His most recent feature, Normal (2025), starring Bob Odenkirk and Lena Headey, premiered in Midnight Madness at the Toronto International Film Festival and received positive reviews.

Andy Starke

Andy Starke is a British producer who, after working in television post-production and playing in the psychedelic rock group Regular Fries, co-founded Boum Productions with film historian Pete Tombs. In 2001 he co-wrote, co-produced, and co-directed the Channel 4 series Mondo Macabro, which led to the founding of the cult American home video label of the same name. In 2008, Starke co-founded Rook Films with director Ben Wheatley and writer Amy Jump, establishing one of the UK's most distinctive homes for auteur genre cinema. Through Rook, he has produced Kill List (2011), Peter Strickland's The Duke of Burgundy (2014), Free Fire (2016), In Fabric (2018), and Brandon Cronenberg's Possessor (2020). More recent producing credits include Hoard (2023), the acclaimed SCALA!!! documentary (2023), and Swimming Home (2024). In 2019, Starke co-founded the distribution company Anti-Worlds. Rook Films operates with a clear mandate: exclusively writer/director-driven projects with a commitment to personal, unconventional filmmaking