Brain feasting zombies were the heroes as a Wellington team scooped the top prize at the the national finals of the V 48 Hours Film Festival.

Noise and Pictures' film Brains? took home the Golden Ape last night at a ceremony at Auckland's historic The Civic theatre.

The film, one of over 800 made and submitted within 48 hours in May, was a surprisingly tender look at a group of zombies having their dinner party of brains and spinal fluid interrupted by a human zombie killer.

Noise and Pictures won over $60,000 in cash and prizes.

Second place went to Auckland team Lense Flare who created a single-shot film that shuttled back and forth through time trying to dissect the mystery of a dead party-goer - The Girl with the Clover Tattoo.

Third place went to animated short Love in Decay, a post-apocalyptic love story between two street cleaners.

Brains? director Giles McNeill, 32, who lead a team of 16 people, said before the finals there was "quite a lot of buzz" about the group's film and he thought it would do well.

However, winning the national final was not something he expected.

"Even as they called out who the winner was, the moment before that I was still doubting that it could have been us.

"[We were] leaping for joy. We were ecstatic and surprised and kind of relieved I guess."

Brains? was the third film entered in the competition by Noise and Pictures and the first time the group had made the finals.

The zombie themed-film, shot in Naenae, was chosen to exploit the talents of make-up artist Hayley Marlow, Mr McNeill said.

"We didn't want to make your typical zombie film so what we did is we subverted the idea and made zombies the heroes and humans are the bad guys in this universe.

"The fact we had that great make-up artist meant we could really draw people in to the conventions of zombie films and then turn it on its head."

Mr McNeill said the collective would continue to make short films with the goal of one day making feature films.

"We are all just sort of buzzing and working out exactly what it is that we are going to do next.

"I'm going to take the prize money and all the kudos and go and knock on film producers doors.

"I would like to go from feature film to feature film for the rest of my life that would be perfect."

The ceremony at the Civic was the 10th birthday of the national competition created by film champion Ant Timpson.

Watch Brains? bellow

WARNING: CONTAINS GRAPHIC CONTENT

NOISE AND PICTURES from 48HOURS on Vimeo.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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