The 48 Hour Film Project hit Aotearoa in 2003, two years after it began in Washington, D.C. The short film contest slowly expanded across the US and the globe (a rival contest, 48 Go Green/48FILM Project, ran for a decade). Kiwi Ant Timpson launched an independent New Zealand 48Hours contest in 2004, so inaugural winner Special Crimes Unit was the only winning Kiwi film that got to compete at the international event (where it was runner-up). Directing this comedy about inept cops on the trail of a music-related murder was Gerard Johnstone, who later won acclaim for The Jacquie Brown Diaries and comedy horror Housebound.