Calling all auteurs: 48-hour film fest is this weekend

This weekend, area film-making types team up for 48 hours of hyper-speed action, ‘cept with less Nolte and Murphy.

This is KC’s second year hosting the 48 Hour Film Project, in which teams of 10 or 11 directors, writers, actors and other assorted production personnel draw a genre from a hat and then work like fiends to integrate the competition’s required character, prop and line of dialog (last year’s was “The whole thing was a mess”) into a 4-7 minute film. It’s sort of like improv, but with more technical skills. Sort of like this one titled Israeli Jones by filmmaker Jeremy Wood:

The winning team goes up against winners from other states, then nations for the ultimate prize of a screening at the Cannes Film Festival — and perhaps a chance to see Vince, Turtle, E and Drama on the warpath.

Registration costs $155 and ends at 6 p.m. on Friday, July 31. Not coincidentally, that’s the same time the festival begins. Organizers have plans for four different screenings for all completed films — but only those submitted by deadline will be judged.