Pilotgroove Pictures took top honors at the Boston 48 Hour Film Project Best Of & Awards, winning 4 categories including Best Film, for Life with the Dead. The mockumentary short was nominated 12 times and was also a winner for Best Editing, Best Script and Best Directing.
The Boston 48 Hour Film Project Best Of & Awards were held virtually on Saturday, June 19 and featured encore screenings of 16 of the top films from this year’s event. Following the screening, over 20 category awards and special honors were handed out. The night also included the first Boston 48HrFP Hall of Fame Inductions (honoring Obnots and Wax Idiotical), and featured celebrity cameos from Gilbert Gottfried, George Wendt and John Ratzenberger—who delivered the nominees for Best Film.
The first win of the night was for Best Editing. Life with the Dead was nominated alongside The Deja Vu Paradox (Extra Medium) and Man’s Best Friend (Unclear Advantage). This is the first Editing award for Ben Peirce—editor on all 12 films from Pilotgroove Pictures—with post-production assistance from Jennifer Peirce and P.J. Huot.
The writing team of P.J. Huot and Ben Peirce were winners for Best Script, but share the honor with contributing writers, Jay Syrene, Greg Giorgio, John MacAskill, Tim Peirce, and Christopher Shannis. Life with the Dead beat out The Deja Vu Paradox, The Background (Medly of Fresh Vegitables) and The Next Big Thing (Moose Films) for the title of Best Script. This was the 2nd win in this category for Pilotgroove Pictures—winners in 2017, for Don Is the New Death.
The award for Best Directing was another first for Pilotgroove Pictures. Life with the Dead is the 7th directorial collaboration for P.J. Huot and Ben Peirce. The pair were honored as “Best Regional Filmmakers” at the 2011 SNOB Film Festival, for Just Remember that They’re Dead—the prequel to this year’s film. Other nominees for Best Directing were The Deja Vu Paradox, Man’s Best Friend, The Next Big Thing and Flush (John Mark Mac).
The nominees for Best Film were The Deja Vu Paradox, Flush, The Background, The Next Big Thing and Life with the Dead. The win not only gives Pilotgroove Pictures their first title for Best Film, but also a slot at Filmapalooza 2022 in Washinton DC (date TBD). Filmapalooza features the 48 Hour Film Project winners from over 160 cities in 48 countries around the world. The winner of Filmapalooza receives an entry into the Cannes Film Festival.
The judges for the Boston 48 Hr. Film Project awards were Joyce Kulhawik (President of the Boston Theater Critics Association and Film Critic for joyceschoices.com), Tom Meek (WBUR, Boston Society of Film Critics) Martin Thomas (Film-Critic and Podcast Host at doubletoasted.com), Cassidy Olsen (Film Critic for the Boston Globe) and Alecia Orsini (President of Women in Film & Video New England)
Pilotgroove Pictures would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to the judges, to our fellow nominees, to our amazing cast and crew, to Boston Producer, Andrew Osborne and everyone else who helped make 48HrFP Boston happen. And finally, we’d like to thank everyone who attended the online screenings and supported independent film through this unprecedented era.
