Expensive Painting Stolen from Davis Station
The annual Winter International Film Festival of Antarctica (WIFFA) took place in August bringing joy, camaraderie and just enough chaos to keep us from slowly losing our minds to the endless ice and cold. For one memorable weekend, we traded thick jackets, Haggs and diesel generators for cameras, costumes and questionable acting skills.
The festival runs across two categories: the 48 Hour Challenge and the Open Challenge. Each comes with awards for Best Film, Best Acting, Best Props/Costumes/Sets, Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Sound — basically all the categories you’d expect at Cannes, but with a much higher risk of shame and embarrassment. The 48 Hour Challenge has a little extra spice with 5 additional elements required in the film that is provided at the opening of the competition.
This year Davis Station threw its snow-crusted beanie in the ring with a tale of a criminal mastermind recruiting three daring thieves to steal an expensive painting from an auction house. (Yes, even in Antarctica our imaginations go straight to crime.)
And who ended up as the Director of this ridiculousness? Me. I have absolutely no filmmaking experience. I don’t know how to design a set, I can’t edit to save my life, and my idea of “costume design” is whatever isn’t in the laundry. But what I do have is a head full of stupid ideas that refuse to go away. So naturally, I decided to unleash them on a captive cast and crew.
The first challenge wasn’t writing a script or planning camera angles — it was convincing my fellow Antarcticans that making a heist film was a brilliant idea. I pitched the concept in the vaguest possible terms (“there’s… a painting? and thieves? trust me, it’ll work”), and to my surprise, they nodded along because they believed in me, or more likely, they were just too polite to say no.
Before I even had a story, I decided the film needed one thing above all else: a really fancy picture frame. So, naturally, I fired up the 3D printer and produced a baroque-style frame worthy of the Louvre — or at least the Davis Station bar. Did we have a script? No. Did we have characters? Barely. But oooweee, we had a frame.
Then came the official 48 hour challenge email with five elements that must be included in the film in order to qualify. That’s when the real panic set in. Each film had to include:
- The 2025 Meme from TikTok
- The sound of applause
- Someone making an espresso
- A bottle
- And the immortal line: “It’s just a flesh wound.”
One of them threw us into chaos: “The 2025 Meme” from TikTok. Wha?! The meme? As if there’s only one. I don’t use TikTok, and Google wasn’t much help. “The meme of 2025” returned results like “Top memes of 2019” and “Is your cat judging you?” Luckily, after some clarification, we learned they meant the “Aura Farming Kid.” (Don’t ask me to explain it. I still don’t know. I just know it’s in our movie now.)
And so, with no script, a vague plotline, underdeveloped characters, and one extremely over-engineered picture frame, we set out to make cinematic history — or at least something that wouldn’t immediately get us disqualified.
It was a big weekend of actors trying to act, directors trying to direct, crew members crewing, and extras being… very extra. Getting everything done in 48 hours was no small deed — especially in the middle of winter, with emotions running high and morale running on about a quarter tank.
After a frantic Saturday of shooting and a marathon Sunday of editing (with Lauren and James working furiously while I hovered behind them like an anxious parent), we crossed the finish line with just minutes to spare.
And then came the results. Drum roll, please…
We took home Best Props/Costumes/Sets and scored second place in Best Editing. The top honours went to Rothera for their hilarious take on retirement village life, and Concordia for a beautifully crafted window into daily station life.
All of the entries will be available soon on the WIFFA website (www.wiffa.aq).
Congratulations to them, to our Davis crew, and to everyone across the ice who kept this quirky Antarctic tradition alive.
Would I direct another 48 hour movie? Absolutely not.
If anybody needs me, I’ll be in my trailer.
Exit stage left.
Brendan Heaver - Senior Communications Technical Officer
