The Aravali AOTS 48-Hour Film Competition
- Patricia Hetherington
- Apr 17
- 3 min read
The Aravali AOTS 48-Hour Film Competition ran 21-23 February, 2025.
This was the first time we ran our 48-hour film competition with the Aravali International Film Festival. Although the Aravali International Film Festival is based in New Delhi, India, and Action On The Side is based in London, UK, we welcomed entrants from all over the world.
Teams were invited to register for the competition here on this site. The competition kick off was held online, and in person in New Delhi (at the Alliance Française de Delhi) and in London at OPEN Ealing.
We had three teams enter the competition: two from London, and one from India. The teams joined us online for the kick-off. Guests were welcomed by the Aravali International Film Festival team, including Dr Avnish Rajvanshi; they were welcomed (virtually) to the Alliance Française de Delhi, and they received tips and tricks from three of the judges: A.D. Cooper, Sumi Kapour, and Patricia Hetherington. Their genres were allocated: Coming of Age, Science Fiction, and Musical / Dance. The random elements were announced: they had to include a torch as a prop, "Listen Up..." as a line of dialogue, and a dolly zoom (as a shot or filmmaking technique).
They were off!
The teams received updates and pep talks in our Wix group, before, during, and after the competition. Teams were reminded to take behind the scenes photos, including a team photo
They had just 48 hours to write, shoot, edit, and submit a 5-7 minute short film.
The competition ran 20:00 IST (14:30 GMT).
Submission was via FilmFreeway. The clock ticked down as the teams raced to the finish...
The films all premiered at the Aravali International Film Festival on Sunday 6th April. The London teams regrettably couldn't attend. Harish from the team: Deepa Motion Pictures spoke to the audience about the competition.
At the festival awards, the winning film was announced:
If You Won't Act, Then Were You Here
The first ever Musical / Dance film in our competition took home the laurels for the competition winner.
As part of the prize package, the film will screen at the Internationa Film Festival of the Hague, The Netherlands, 5-7 November 2025.
There are many parts to the challenge. The random elements, the genre, the release forms. Crediting all crew, adding specific graphics. Working out the submission platform. But the key part of the challenge is the deadline...
All three teams submitted their film within 1 hour of the deadline. They all met the requirements for Chain of Title, Graphics, Credits, the random elements...
... but only one team submitted by the deadline.
This does not mean that that team won by default. Watch the films, and you'll see what an amazing job they did. Regardless of what happened with the submissions, the teams all did excellently and made a film!! See their pages on our site to see what Honourable Mentions the teams received.
We will screen the three films at the Action On The Side cinema screening with the Cinema SoundEX films in July (details tba).
Our next 48-Hour Film Competition is
And we look forward to working with the Aravali International Film Festival for the Aravali AOTS competition again next year.
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