48hr BEST OF Winners 2026
BEST USE OF THEME (Movement)
Deadwood | from Ricky Chavez & Jenny Baumert
BEST USE OF ACTION (Nudge)
Flight | from Sean & Patrick Johnson
BEST USE OF ITEM (Wood)
More than You Can Chew | from Kevin Van Aelst
BEST FILM (12 & Under)
Hedgehog & Pine Cone | from Rusian Volfson & Maria Volfson
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Ona | from Kate Kenny & Juan Castaneda and Higher Ground | from Pegan Circus (TIE)
BEST EDITING
LOGJAM | from Morgan Rebane & Sean Cawelti
BEST SOUND DESIGN
There Is Nothing | from Team Darkness
BEST USE OF PUPPETRY
marionettes de viande de la rue morgue | from Kendall Bailey
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
Small But Termighty | from Endling Puppetry
RUNNERS UP FOR BEST FILM…
The Forty-Eight Hour Rube Goldberg Machine Competition Festival | from Matthew Andrews
Small But Termighty | from Endling Puppetry
marionettes de viande de la rue morgue | from Kendall Bailey
Love Is In The Air | from Jack Rogers and Aisling Doyle
Impuro | from Denver Puppets
I Want Friends | from Arianna Hammond & Angelika Osowiecki
More Than You Can Chew | from Kevin Van Aelst
Drawn | from The Crewbers
LOGJAM | from Morgan Rebane & Sean Cawelti
Ona | from Kate Kenney and Juan Castaneda
Immigranti | from Enio Pozzebon and Katrina Gaskell
It’s Not Delivery | from Sean Fitzgerald
BEST FILM WINNERS
3rd Place
Technical Difficulties | from Robin Davis Studio
2nd Place
Higher Ground | from Pagan Circus
1st Place
deadwood | from Ricky Chavez & Jenny Baumert
Meet Our 2026 Judges!
Dan Garza
Credits include "Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock," "The Muppet Show (2026)", and Donna Kimball’s "Guillermo & Will!"
half past selber schuld
Credits include "RTL Puppenstars," Quantum - The Universe Machine, and What's Wrong with People
Katie McClenahan O’Brien
Credits include "Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio" "The Tiny Chef Show" and "Melvin the Birder"
The 48hr Puppet Film Project is an annual event originally presented through the LA Guild of Puppetry, and now presented by Handmade Puppet Dreams and Griffin Eye Productions through originator and producer Alex U. Griffin. For the past two years, Handmade Puppet Dreams and Heather Henson has been proud to sponsor the event and give a little something extra to artists partaking in the challenge.
This event first started in 2018 as an effort to spark creativity-through-challenge within puppeteers and filmmakers in the LA area by giving them just 48hrs to create a short film using our randomly-drawn theme, object, and action. Since then, the event has gone international and attracts submissions from participants from around the world!
Past judges have included Kirk Thatcher (The Muppets, Dinosaurs), Tim Lagasse (Crash & Bernstein, Helpsters), Trish Sie (Step Up: All In, Pitch Perfect 3), Heather Henson (IBEX Puppetry, Handmade Puppet Dreams), Christine Papalexis (Team America: World Police, Amaterasu), Bill Watterson (Dave Made a Maze, Brooklyn Nine-Nine), Sam Koji Hale (Alien X-Mas, Yamasong: March of the Hollows), Liz Hara (Sesame Street, Life in Pieces), Victor Yerrid (Earth to Ned, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance), Alva Rogers (the doll plays, Daughters of the Dust), Liz Hara (Sesame Street, Life in Pieces), Jean Marie Keevins (The Muppets, Helpsters), Pam Severns (Jim Henson: In His Own Words, Bunny Love), Rudy Martinez (Dear White People, Jane the Virgin, Ham), and Tyler Bunch (Bear in the Big Blue House, Pokemon, Sesame Street), Amanda Maddock (Crank Yankers, Five Nights at Freddy's), Sarah Fornace (Manual Cinema, Candyman 2021), and Frankie Cordero (Donkey Hodie, Sesame Street), Nicolette Santino (Barbarian and the Troll, Coldplay on Tour), Jimmica Collins (Donkey Hodie, Sesame Street), and Craig Shemin (Jim Henson Legacy, The Muppets).