Junk Mail is a preposterous Best of City winner

First things first, Junk Mail is out and available for home streaming! Go watch it with your kids and then awkwardly explain the main conceit. Or don’t… but if you do, know that is exactly what happened at the official 48 screenings. We laughed a very meta laugh.

2025 DSM 48HFP has been something special. Spoiler alert, we won Best of City for the second time, took home Best Directing for the 3rd time, BEST ENSEMBLE for the first time (lots of thoughts on this), and audience award for Group C. The hardware this year was also super cool. It should be mentioned Chris Kottman, new DSM 48 City Producer, nailed the assignment. Were there differences from a Sam 48, certainly but nothing to complain about. I can’t wait to see what Chris comes up with. The important parts are the big screen showings are still in place and the Best of City felt like a serious event for the people who are invested in 48.

So Junk Mail, when we were announced as Best Film of the competition I was surprised of course… but not completely shocked like 2022. I knew Junk Mail was a riot and forced the audience to lose it maybe a dozen times throughout its short run time (5 minutes of film, 1:44 of credit extra fun). From the moment we brainstormed up the “Junk Mail” pun and general plot (credit to Jill McLain) I could feel this year was a redo of 2022. To start, ‘25 & ‘22 are the only years where an idea for a film took hold and basically shut down the brainstorm. In fact, just like in ‘22 it felt like Brian was the only person capable of playing our doomed mail carrier and before we even had a chance to cast it he yelled “Pat, this was the part I was born to play!” I laughed pretty hard at that, but just like The Run, it just doesn’t make much sense for another Exploder to play this part. Second, as soon as we had the main prop set and in frame, I was overcome with the sheer ridiculousness of it and once again hoped it would be recognized for its audacity and hilariousness. And last the screenings, people were losing their mind with laughter. Seriously, when the title card hits there were legit screams.

The Run was a 48-only film. I never submitted it to any other film festivals. I love it and thought it was hilarious, but was truly shocked when it won. Something about it felt very 48 to me. I was wrong. It has over 2,000 views on our YouTube channel. I guess don’t limit yourself and believe was the audience tells you. From the Junk Mail experience, it is clear the film is a bonafide crack up. In fact, even before the initial screening every time Junk Mail popped into my head of an audience experiencing it I started to smile like Mr. Burns or a supervillain. I think half of it is the wild joke, but what I really love is no one knows where the story is going at pretty much any turn. If there are two things I love it’s producing “WTF am I watching” movie theater moments and films that can’t be predicted.

Awards have always been a headtrip to me. 15 years ago, a mentor of sorts, Jedi-mindtricked me over winning an Emmy. To paraphrase he said “Awards look nice on a resume but the industry doesn’t care and judge taste is the real wild card.” Since I’ve looked at all awards through that lens; who were the judges, what are they into, and what am I really getting from a win?” It’s a cynical way to evaluate these experiences and it’s only been recently that I realized that it’s kind of horse shit. Life is long and take joy where you can. Celebrate the good.

This year we clearly had a lot of good. Best film is a humbling dream. Best Directing is a wonderful gift as I am such a film nerd, being an “award winning director” is hilarious and awesome. The true big win Tiny Explosions as a team is Best Ensemble. I do a lot on 48 weekend, but I always want to grow our team and include as many talents and interests as possible. We’ve never won an award for writing but Best Ensemble for us is kind of the same thing. We improv a lot of our dialogue and switch up the tone on the spot quite frequently. Our actors carry the wild ideas and I’m so happy we’ve been recognized for it. 

Now that we’ve taken the top prize again, we’re excited to return to Filmapalooza. Brian and I both had an incredible experience in at Filma ‘23. I hope we can replicate that in Lisbon. In the interim we’re going back for our 4th run at the Horror 48 and in November hopefully we can do the winners invite competition “Yes We Canne” and (fingers crossed) hopefully punch a direct ticket to the biggest film festival on the planet. BTS Video Coming Soon.

FINAL THOUGHTS, there were a lot of great films this year. Every year Best of City feels like a quality line-up but when lights came up this year, it seemed like the entire room was surprised how great the films were. There didn’t feel like anyone was there as a filler or lucky addition. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to see all the films this year. The screenings were right at the start of the State Fair so I had to make hard choices about which two screenings to see. First was Group C where Junk Mail premiered, and then went to Group B to support Stalker Woman and Peach Fuzz. So having seen just over half the films here is personal semi-informed top three films of the competition (excluding Tiny Explosions):

1) Knead to Succeed by Sleepless in Marengo

The Mediaverse collective of filmmakers is always formidable and after seeing this film in Screening Group C, I legit thought “Shit, they did it.” A super strong lead performance that carried a fraught drama with awesome cinematography. Seeing it again at Best of City, the camera work is really something on this film. I am amazed it didn’t place in the top 3. I would chalk this up to Judge’s taste, feels like a coin flip that this film could win the whole thing. Love seeing what the MVS team produces.

2) Whisking Business by Cutting Room Floor

If there was any film at Best of City that gave us a run for most and biggest laughs, it was Cutting Room Floor. This team is turning into a powerhouse. No flaws on this film. The story reminded me of our film Making Magic, but with any entirely different engine to the plot. I loved it and laughed a lot. Really fun hard cut ending.

4) Celebration by Tu Baby Gangsta 

I am a sucker for teams that pull of a strong, quiet drama at 48. It is a real gamble to attempt a drama in the 48 window. Celebration was a house of cards with the acting, score, cinematography, and editing making it as solid as a ship built of steel. Absolutely loved it. A side note, I loved seeing this team in the competition. The team core of Thai and Justin hadn’t competed in Des Moines’ 48 in a few years. So glad to see strong filmmakers return to our local competition and bring the goods. Here’s hoping they stay in and keep surprising us.