Calling all puppeteers, filmmakers, storytellers, and Halloween weirdos! Can you craft a three-minute-or-less puppet film in just 48hrs? Join the 48hr Halloween Puppet Film Project and find out! We'll have three hauntingly wonderful judges, prizes for top films, and a final virtual "screaming!"
Meet Our Endearingly Deadly 2026 Judges!
Coming Soon!
Credits include lots of creative projects that you may or may not have heard of... but are all super cool!
Coming Soon!
Credits include lots of creative projects that you may or may not have heard of... but are all super cool!
Coming Soon!
Credits include lots of creative projects that you may or may not have heard of... but are all super cool!
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), Katie McClenahan O'Brien (Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio, The Tiny Chef Show), half past selber schuld (RTL Puppenstars, What's Wrong with People), and Dan Garza (The Muppet Show 2026, Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock).