(Montreal) On Friday, June 2 at precisely 7:30 PM, twelve wide-awake filmmaking teams took off from the launch point at Salon Daome. Each team was armed with a theme and an object. Their mission: to craft a six minute film they would write, cast, film, score and edit in exactly two days. Forty-eight hours (or 2880 minutes) later, nine tired but happy teams crossed the finish line on time, with three more arriving minutes later—too late to screen in competition but still in the running for the audience choice award. The top secret theme was ‘the secret’ and the special object to weave into the story, a pack of playing cards. An enthusiastic house cheered on the wildly disparate and inventive films, with styles ranging from experimental to drama, comedy and even animation. After each film screened, the teams related anecdotes about their sleepless weekend – tales of frustrating power failures, driving hours to find the perfect location, nerve-wracking equipment breakdowns and spending hours to build a house of cards as deadline drew ever closer.

The “Technical Award” winners from last year’s Blitz, Team Creative Matter, swept the top prizes by winning both the Overall Achievement Award (a $5000 support grant from the National Film Board) and the audience choice award (dinner at Microbrasserie Le Reservoir with Quebec filmmaker Jean-Francois Pouliot, director of La Grande Seduction) for their film, “Snakebite”. This ambitious team shot on 16 mm black and white film that they developed in a bathtub to produce a quirky experimental film starring two jerky dancers, a dog, and animated floating hearts. Endorphin Films won the $2500 SPR Audio Post Production Award for Best Technical Achievement for ‘Solitaire’ a visually stunning story of a solitaire player gaining enlightenment as his playing cards morph into prophets. The Mainfilm Special Jury prize went to team Renlogik. This breathless team raced in just forty seconds before deadline to deliver ‘’Maestro”, a music driven story of a man, his dog and his madcap quest for the queen of hearts playing card.

Team Les Crazy 48s received a special jury mention for the finely-crafted ‘Ouest Turn’, following a man entering an alternative universe in his quest for the meaning of life. For those who missed the screening, SilenceOnCourt.tv is licensing five films that will premiere on their website starting Friday, June 11: “Tea Time”, “Ouest Turn”, “Snake Bite”, “Trash It” and “Maestro”