Going home will now go to the USA to represent Sydney and the Blue Mountains against the winning films from 70 other cities worldwide. The air ticket is courtesy of the Footbeat Festival. The film also received prizes from project sponsors Cutting Edge, MetroScreen and the Australian Directors Guild.

As well as winning best film, Going Home’s director Semih Ozkoseoglu was awarded best director for this fascinating tale that has Danielle Colley as a grim reaper transporting a distressed traveller played by Markus Hamilton, who also won the best male actor award, to an unexpected destination.

The 48 Hour Film Project is an international event that challenges competing teams of film-makers to show their creativity by producing and delivering a completed short film in only two days.

Each film must incorporate common elements (a prop, a character, and a line of dialogue) into an assigned genre chosen at random by the film-makers. This is the inaugural year for the 48 Hour Film Project in Sydney and the Blue Mountains.

“When we drew the road movie genre, I was at first quite excited,” said Joe Hughes. “Then, in the next hour, I became quite nervous and it wasn’t until 2am the next morning, after we had brainstormed it, that I regained confidence.”

Semih said their team had talked about their approach to just about every genre of films. “But, we never thought about road movies,” he said. “We had arranged a house to shoot in and so we just had to start again.”

To join in the fun, they recruited an enthusiastic cast and crew.

“Despite some problems such as our batteries failing, it was the most enjoyable and relaxed shoot I’ve ever been on,” said Joe. “Writing the script and editing was pretty stressful though.”

“Going Home has suitably stark black and white photography and an absolutely stunning example of jump-cut editing by Semith Ozkoseoglu,” said competition judge Garfield Barnard of Barnard’s Star Productions.