Between Us

Great poster, will watch out for this! :)

Going to do my best to be vague enough that I don't spoil this for anyone who hasn't gotten to see it yet.

I very much enjoyed your film and the concept of the magnet and fridges! Loved the connection between the couple, the little moments of chatting and sharing life, even apart. The ending definitely got me, haha.

The one thing I might have considered changing would be flipping one of the fridges at the beginning to open to the opposite side of the screen than the other one, just to reinforce the idea of two fridges and being apart from each other.

Otherwise though, so, so good. I was like "oh, genius!" with her solution to the ordeal toward the end, which made what happened hit that much harder. The little detail of her top hanging out meant we doubly knew. Great storytelling!

Awesome job :)

A heartfelt, well-made short film with a strong emotional touch. 👏🎬

Definitely worth watching! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Lovely work on this one. Such a simple idea carried with a lot of heart — you can tell the whole team cared about the story they were telling. The emotional beats really land, and doing that in a couple of minutes is no small thing. Congratulations to everyone involved! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is really excellent; really strong emotional core, that resonates perfectly in the post covid era.
I really enjoy the sci-fi element being used purely as a vehicle to tell an emotional story.
I really enjoyed the sound mix, apart from some noise happening in the dialogue, which is a shame because the dialogue is so crucial to the narrative. There are a few ways to deal with that; a separate soundie, lapels, Graphic Equalizer, and ADR.
The cinematography, use of split screen, and editing all brought the story to life, alongside two committed, impressive performances.

The final shot was brilliant; the hanging fabric emphasizing the ambiguity; delicious!

Masterful editing. That was such a pleasure to watch. The editing made it SO clear to the audience what was happening from the very beginning. That split screen discussion at the end when they are "facing" each other was really well done and perfectly timed.
I have to admit, I was mad when he stole the chocolate from his pregnant wife and gave an AI-generated photo in return... that was a rough deal!
As others have said, a good emotional story. Talking to the camera really invited us to be a part of that experience, and I really felt it with you. It was made even better by such earnest performances and genuine chemistry between the actors.
Even though the sci-fi element was silly, you acknowledged that it was, and it added to the heartfelt tone that was grounded in family and connection, despite physical distance. I'm left wondering how much more whimsy I could have in life if I was connected to loved ones through a fridge magnet!
Really cute, nice work :)

This is a really lovely film and it looks like a million bucks. So nice to see contestants originally from overseas bringing diverse voices to this competition – with the added benefit that I imagined the husband and wife may live in two different countries. Perhaps that's the whole idea.

The film leaves a lot to the audience's imagination. How did the couple meet? I assumed they only knew each other through their fridges which left me wondering when they got married and how the wife got pregnant. Perhaps that isn't the intended interpretation. What happens to the husband and wife at the end? I was surprised to learn I had a more optimistic take than everyone else I talked to. I had missed the explanation about the magnet at the start and didn't notice it fall off the fridge.

I love how the two kitchens are placed side-by-side so carefully that they basically look like the same kitchen. I love the occasional animated cut. There's some great playing with colour and lighting at the start.

The main thing that could have elevated this film further is better-quality recording of the dialogue. It sounded to me like the husband may have been recorded using a lapel under some clothes (resulting in muffled, rustly audio) while the wife may have been recorded using the camera itself (resulting in echoey audio). I could be wrong, but regardless, a boom mic would be the gold standard for capturing crisp vocals. But these things can be impossible if you don't have the budget, the equipment, enough people, or enough time.

Well done on a beautiful debut 48Hours film with a lovely story and some clever twists. I can't wait to see what you come up with next year. Hopefully see you at the finals!

What I Liked:
This concept reminded me a lot of a film where two neighbours shared a fridge, which I swear was a 48-Lockdown film but damned if I can find it! I think the start set up things really well with the 4th wall breaking working superbly. Do we ever get an explanation on why they are apart? How she got pregnant? (was a sample left in the fridge, ha,ha) In many ways it doesn’t matter. Nice camerawork and well edited. I also really enjoyed the dark turn it took.

Take it or leave it:
I think the performances get a little weaker the longer the film goes on – the magic was with their separation, and the more time they spent together interacting, the chemistry was kind of lost. This probably had more to do with the dialogue than the actors, as it got less punchy and less interesting – it just slowed things down. As others have pointed out, the sound gets a little muddy at points, but hey, we’ve all been there.

Final hot air:
This was really well put together, and I’m super glad it didn’t end all sugary and sweet. Despite the chocolate. Nice work!

A story of distance, love, and the limits of magical household appliances!

This story was so sweet and horrifying all in one, in the best possible way. The performances were earnest and endearing. I loved her short pieces-to-camera, it felt like being invited into her world, adding a level of humanity to her while also keeping the story’s tone light and sweet. The shots and editing were so skilfully designed, the two-shot cuts between two separate kitchen spaces felt so seamless and it both captured the distance of separate living situations and the closeness and ease of their relationship. I really loved the magic nature of the fridge! It was such a unique idea as a connective building device and a really cute, quirky item that felt perfect for the nature of the story! And of course the ending, oh my stars the ending! The rising tension, her last ditch attempt to save him, what a beautifully horrifying way to twist audience expectations and round out this story!

I always love to give a bit of feedback, and this story I feel could have been improved with some stronger dialogue/story beats to give more context to what was going on. It was only partway through that it became clear to me they were in a relationship and currently living in separate spaces but connected by the magical fridge. Some clearer dialogue/story elements may have made this more overt from an earlier point.

Overall though, this was a really enjoyable watch! It was heartfelt, sweet, and terrifying all in one! I’d be surprised if this didn’t make the city finals, y’all killed it with this film!

I was young once two, but even that didn’t prepare me for this. I thought this would be a perfect watch for our first date night since we got married, her first, my second marriage. But it hit us pretty hard.

I made one joke!! Just one and now I’m sleeping on the couch in my sisters stable.

Be careful what you watch fellas.

This film feels like a Maggi soup commercial which makes the already-psycho ending even more deliciously messed up. Loved it!

I just want to mention up top that I really appreciated getting a text from you guys after the finalists were announced. The way you expressed your gratitude for the opportunity to compete in this comp and, as you put it, 'take creative risks, and be part of the filmmaking community', was a really awesome message to receive, and encouraging for the future of the kind of Chch competitors we are recruiting. We know not making finals can be disappointing, but your response was the exact right attitude needed to improve. Welcome to the family! We're so happy you're here and we hope you stay for a long time.

Now, you wanted constructive feedback! Here's what I've got for you

Right out of the gate we knew this film was going to be special - the cinematography was very clean, the lighting, composition and performance was really strong. The edit was great, and while it did take a second watch to fully comprehend the relationship between the characters and their distance issue, the concept was solid.

Initially we were a little turned off by the AI image conversation, just because the AI image topic is one we shudder at as creatives. But on reflection, I appreciate it more under the context of the 'Family' idea, because lets face it, it's so easy to do a silly image gen like this, and it's a novel thing for people at the moment, it's really a slice of history being told - 'This is what couples did in the year 2026'. So therefore, it's an accurate plot line for a family tale, and it is wholesome, so nice job.

The main drawback? This film had probably the biggest tonal swing we've seen in years hahaha - it was a creative risk alright! One that we really admired, but the judges? not so hot on it. Family films are intended to be for families to enjoy, and so the choice to finish your story with a pregnant lady getting trapped in the fridge dimension was...well, certainly something! we actually liked it! But it strayed from the genre too far for the judges to give it the tick of approval.

One judge commented that something that would have helped with story clarity was if the kitchens didn't look so similar, this is something we clocked too as we tried to follow what was happening.

I suppose the big question is 'what needed to change for it to be a stronger tale', and I suppose it comes down to taste, but we'll leave you with the final comment from a judge - this film probably should have been resolved. And for you to have it resolve, you'd need more run time, so what are you gonna cut? Probably a combo of less setup (trust your audience can figure out the magic without a direct to camera explanation) and maybe a more organic, faster paced conversation about chocolate/AI images. Cut to the twist in the middle, find a way for them to be together, give us the satisfaction of a happy ending!

THE BEST THING: A really strong delivery on all technical and performance aspects.

THE NEXT THING: I'd recommend more research on your genre, judges love a story that really soaks in their assigned genre well. Very much looking forward to the next film from Members of human race! See you next year!

Thank you, Joel & Rachel, for taking the time to watch our film and for giving such detailed feedback. We genuinely appreciate the positive comments about the cinematography, lighting, performances, editing and the creative risk we took with the story.

We would, however, like to respectfully challenge one part of the feedback — the idea that because Between Us was assigned the Family genre, the story should ultimately have been resolved with the characters together and given a happy ending.

Family stories are not necessarily happy stories. Family is a genre that can explore love, separation, loss, sacrifice, grief, conflict and even tragedy. Some of the most powerful family stories leave audiences emotionally unsettled rather than giving them a conventional happy resolution. If a particular type of positive or happy ending was expected from the genre, we feel that expectation should be clearly communicated as part of the genre criteria rather than assumed.

We also feel that the film was deliberately constructed as a narrative film, rather than a film where the characters constantly explain the story directly to the audience. The girl speaking to the audience at certain points was not intended to “explain the subject”; it was a storytelling device to establish intimacy and allow the audience into her world. Several other reviewers actually responded positively to this choice, describing the pieces-to-camera as something that invited them into her experience.

Similarly, we don't believe that every dialogue sequence needs to be fast-paced. Narrative storytelling has rhythm — tension, silence, intimacy, humour, calm and escalation. The slower moments were intentional because we wanted the audience to experience the relationship before the tonal shift in the final act. Interestingly, other reviewers specifically praised the emotional beats, chemistry and gradual rise in tension, while one reviewer even said they were glad the film did not end “all sugary and sweet.”

We completely accept that the ending may not have worked for the judges personally. That's part of filmmaking — audiences and judges will interpret the same story differently. But we would have appreciated the feedback being framed more around why the narrative failed to work for them, rather than implying that the story needed to become a happy-ending family film.

This was our first 48HOURS experience, and we entered because we wanted to take a creative risk, tell a story we believed in and become part of the filmmaking community. We are grateful for the opportunity and for everyone who watched and reviewed our film.

At the same time, the experience has made us question whether this competition is the right creative environment for us in the future. We came to make a film, not simply to satisfy an assumed formula for what a genre should look like.

We respect the judges' opinions, but we also hope future judging allows more room for different interpretations of genre, narrative structure, pacing and endings. Not every family story needs to end happily — sometimes the story is about what happens when it doesn't.

Thank you again for watching Between Us and for taking the time to give us your thoughts.

Hi team Members of Human Race,

I feel for you!

Having been on the receiving end of the dreaded genre debate two years in a row, I know just how deflating it can feel.

This competition has been running for a quarter of a century now, and tens of thousands of films have been through the system. It's an incredibly challenging environment and the parametres are put in place to make sure this giant, national game is played as fairly as possible with everyone on the same footing.

And it is a game. It's a competition. A competition with multiple judges, all who need to be appeased to some degree if you are to achieve success. One of the fundamental areas these judges look at is "Use of Genre". This shouldn't be confused with "Genre Adherence" as genre subversion is very much encouraged.

A 'Family Movie', by definition, is a film designed to be enjoyed equally by multiple generations. There’s actually a really handy guide on the 48 hours website itself which tells you what they’re expecting for each genre, which you can find here - https://www.48hours.co.nz/city-info-1/required-elements-and-genres

Many teams this year have subverted the Family Movie by making something with very adult themes, wrapped up in the bright, shiny casing of a Family Movie. This is completely accepted by most judges as its a genre subversion. They’ve taken a wrecking ball to the genre in the name of parody. But the fundamental core is still there on display for all to see.

What you have presented is, ostensibly, a dramedy about a long distance relationship. A film *about* family as opposed to a “Family Movie”.

I absolutely loved your ending. It knocked my socks off and made it a far more elevated film than I was expecting. But I think you’d be hard-pressed to argue that this open-to-intepretation/quasi-horror turn is something that would appeal to an entire family.

This doesn’t mean you can’t explore “love, separation, loss, sacrifice, grief, conflict and even tragedy” within these constraints. A classic example of this would be, maybe the most famous Family Movie of all time, It’s a Wonderful Life.

Within this competition you can either be an auteur (make the film you want to make, not give a damn about what the judges think) and use it as a platform to show your work to the masses, or you can compete to win (bend the rules as far as you can without breaking them and aim to appeal to a wide variety of judges all with differing tastes). But its difficult to have it both ways.

And 48 Hours on a whole is incredibly accommodating for all manner of outlaws. That’s why we have the Incredibly Strange award. Diving headfirst into weirdness is something that is routinely celebrated.

You made an excellent film as noted by many of the above reviews. I would implore you to not be disheartened by the judges take on your film and, instead, come back next year stronger, well equipped, and ready to play the game it takes to win. You definitely have all the ingredients.

Or just keep being you!

So I really didn't have any issue with the use of genre by this team in fact I think the love language of gift giving between the two leads was the most endearing part of the film and it made it quite a cute reveal to the bump.
Expectant parents in love are a beautiful thing and was really nice to see them making every effort to make it work despite being long distance. The drive for a connected family was the underlying theme and that works.

The film has a lot more underlying issues that undid the groundwork you did on the relationship building between two characters.

Firstly, fourth wall breaking absolutely needs to be earned. Just kicking things off by looking at the camera and talking to me past the screen is even worse for me as a viewer than narration or talking heads. It makes no sense and presents as disorientating when I'm coming into a world I know nothing about. You'll hear a lot of comments from those in the know to show don't tell and there's a damn good reason for that or you come across as "Captain Exposition"

Point 2 (and trust me this wasn't written with a piece of AI software in sight) I had an issue with was the bland suburban setting almost exclusively indoors. With a neutral colour palet to match you IMMEDIATELY lost my visual interest. Your house looks lovely, and I could see the attempts to provide some visual contrast with subtle flowers or other colour wheel objects that should pop. But they didn't. It all blended into one.

The film is almost all sitting or standing around and talking for the vast majority of the runtime. The performers have visually expressive faces which helps make them likeable at least, but the actual tonal delivery of the script was extremely monotone for the most part.

Unfortunately this combined with an almost complete lack of camera movement or heightened angles gave a stiff feeling to proceedings in terms of engaging me with your actual story. It actually came across like a rough draft of a theatre production where blocking is still being worked out.

To me your cinematography was just OK. You know how to light and frame. The big problem is that you kept using the same lighting and angles throughout the film. For me to deem a film as having good cinematography I want a display of range that I feel is cinematic, or you to go much harder to impress if you're focusing on one still style of image and contrast is key for that.

Now your split screen work actually showed you starting to cook, and was very much needed because up until that point due to the previously mentioned issues of the film it was actually quite unclear whether the characters were inhabiting the same space, or if your metaphysical rumour was true, or if this was an out of sequence narrative.

The problem with the split screen was that the audio let you down big time. Just from a spatial perspective it played very weird for them to be holding the phone 1.2 metres away from their bodies and the audio being seemingly crystal clear for what they could hear. And then the guy had pretty clean audio whilst the wife had echoey audio on her side of the screen. Some foley or getting extra creative with the split screen could have elevated the film in my opinion there.

Where the film worked really well were the final 30 seconds of dramatic tension as you looked to tie together a full circle film bringing together your opening address to reality, having the camera come to life, showing a genuine threat for both the choking party and the person potentially stuck.

Also very fitting use of some presumedly licensed music from epidemicsound.

You are clearly a talented team, and this is probably a very harsh review so I want to make it crystal clear this is just my personal take on what didn't work for me and applying a blowtorch to your technical aspects. Please don't be disheartened at missing out on the Christchurch final as it's actually bloody hard to even get on the shortlist and good luck for your future endeavours!

*Please use this section as a review site to write individual film reviews rather than as a comment thread. Thanks!

I should have included this in my film. (Yes, I know; I've also just commented)

I dunno, the discussion is super interesting and there's no way to reply to reviews or anywhere else to have them. Maybe being able to reply to reviews like a thread could be a feature to consider adding

I've advocated for this before, but I do actually think this space should be left for film reviews. When the excellent and entertaining 48HR forum existed, that was the place. Now, probably Facebook with a link to the review/film. Bang away as much as you like on there about your film - here is for other people to share their opinions on the film, not 48HRS the process. Comments, usually from the creators themselves, will get a bit unwieldy and reactive otherwise. Optics won't be good. But I'm not the Screening Room police, so do what you want!