The New Zealand Film Commission congratulates Ant Timpson and Marshall Smith who were honoured last night by the Arts Regional Trust (ART).

Timpson is the inaugural recipient of the ART Creative Entrepreneur Award, and Smith was awarded a place on the creative enterprise accelerator programme ART Venture.

The 48HOURS Filmmaking Competition will celebrate 10 years of furious 48 hour filmmaking this year and Timpson has been at the helm since the beginning. V48HOURS is officially New Zealand's largest film competition and is a major part of the New Zealand film landscape, with its role as a key new talent incubator signalled in the Jackson-Court Review.

Since 2005, the New Zealand Film Commission has been involved with the 48HOURS Filmmaking Competition and continues to support Timpson’s role in this annual competition.

In 2011 Timpson launched the Make my Movie Scheme, an innovative spin-off to 48HOURS, which allows the winning team to make a low budget feature film for $100,000. Funded by the New Zealand Film Commission and NZ On Air, the inaugural winners of the Scheme are veterans off Wellington 48HOURS.

The New Zealand Film Commission last year supported Smith with a Professional Development Award to attend The Hollywood Reporter/Billboard Film & TV Music Conference in Los Angeles. His composer credits include Annie Goldson’s documentary Brother Number One, US documentary The 16th Man and the Animal Planet/NHNZ documentary series Dark Days in Monkey City.

Media Release: New Zealand Film Commission