Cover photo by 925 Studio on Unsplash

Canada’s 48-hour film festival, based in Winnipeg, is gearing up for its 6th year. Though the competition itself will be in June, the festival kicks off with registration in March and a meet and greet in April.

Ben Williams, founder and executive director of The 48 Film Festival, said the bake sale will be held around Valentine’s Day. Film watchers and makers alike are invited to the sale to eat, mingle, and enjoy that night’s screenings at the Dave Barber Cinematheque.

During the competition itself, local filmmakers, musicians, and artists will work in teams to produce a short film from start to finish in just 48 hours; a process that typically spans weeks or months.

On the day of the competition, teams are given the “key”: criteria for all films, completely unknown beforehand. Typically the key includes predetermined filmmaking techniques, props, or dialogue.

Williams said The 48 does things a little differently. While other 48-hour film challenges say, “Here’s the colour yellow, here’s a tree branch, here’s an iPhone; make a film,” Canada’s is very intentional.

“We focus on the theme,” he said. The theme can be anything from “growth” to “communication” and prevents teams from planning their film before the competition.

With Canada’s multicultural diversity and over 400 spoken languages in mind, The 48 welcomes filmmakers to use their native languages in the short films, with the opportunity for English subtitles at screenings.

“We always talk about the ‘mosaic of Canada,’” said Williams, “and all the different people from all over the place.”

Registration opens in March, and a meet and greet will be held in April. Williams said the meet and greet will be a great opportunity for participants to find people to work with and learn from talks given by professionals from ACTRA, the Directors Guild of Canada, On Screen Manitoba, and others.

Vince Blais directed Go Ham, a short film created during the 2025 festival. He said it put several pieces of the creative process into focus.

“The 48 was a really incredible experience as an emerging filmmaker,” said Blais. “I loved collaborating with people who brought different perspectives, but all toward one shared vision. I really learned to trust the team—delegating roles, letting others shine in what they do best—and seeing how, together, we built something unified. It made me realize it’s less about me and more about what we can create as a team.”

After the competition, a jury will select provincial winners to be screened at the Gimli International Film Festival in July and 2 short films from each province to be screened at the national event.

Winning short films are paid “artist fees” as compensation for being screened at the provincial and national levels—something “most film competitions don’t do,” said Williams.

All finished submissions will be screened in August at the Centre Culturel Franco-Manitobain. The 48 has grown significantly since starting more than ten years ago, with a total of 32 films shot and screened during last year’s festival.

“I’m very, very grateful and super humbled by it,” said.  Williams.