Short filmmakers can spend a wild weekend doing what they do best thanks to the 48 Hour Film Project. A global filmmaking contest that finds its home in many big American cities, the project gives filmmakers just 48 hours to produce a short film. Fridays, they are given a character, prop, a line of dialogue, and a genre as guidelines for the film, which must be completed 48 hours later. After the film is complete, it is shown in a local theatre and judged.

Last year alone, 30,000 filmmakers around the world made films for the project. The mission of the project is to promote small time filmmakers who otherwise would not gain recognition for their work. The project is the brainchild of Mark Ruppert, who came up with the idea in 2001 and enlisted several filmmakers around the DC area to launch his 48 hour filmmaking experiement. Teams have ranged in size from a lone filmmaker to a group in New Mexico that consisted of 116 people and 30 horses. Over the past eight years, the project has grown exponentially. The creators of the 48 Hour Film project have gone on to lend their hand in another film project, called the National Film Challenge.

Nashville is one of the many cities across the world that participates in the 48 Hour Film Project. The most recent competition was held in July and the winners can be found here. To read about what happened in this year's competition, you can read the Nashville 48 Hour Film Project blog and to get information on how to get ready to participate in the project next year, you can look here and here. Filmnashville.org has a special section dedicated to the project, which has been giving opportunities to Nashville short filmmakers since 2003. When the project wraps, they promote postseason competitions for filmmakers to take part in.

Below is "Stalling," a winner of Nashville's 2009 48 Hour Project, which won in the categories of "Best Buddy Film," "Best End Credits," "Best Writing," and "Audience Favorite." The flim was directd and produced by Brian K. Roberts and J. Chris Wall and written by Torry Martin, Teri Modisette, and J. Chris Wall. Take a look to see what local filmmakers can accomplish in a mere 48 hours!