‘Beat the Clock’ movie challenge honors speedy Phoenix filmmakers

More than 40 independent filmmaking groups across Arizona competed in the Independent Filmmaker Project Phoenix's annual Beat the Clock film challenge in 2025.

But just like Highlander, there can be only one, and the winner of this year’s grand prize was "The Ghost in the Mirror," directed by Korbin Christie.

IFP Phoenix announced the winners of the challenge on July 31 at Harkins Scottsdale 101 14, and Best Picture wasn't the only award Christie took home. He also snagged Best Actor for playing dual roles in his own film: "The Ghost in the Mirror" is a one-man show in which Christie plays both a man forced to come up with a new business strategy to please his boss, and a ghost who is caught in a similar situation.

The actor-director took home a $250 cash prize and an automatic entry in next year’s Phoenix Film Festival, which will be held April 9 through 16, 2026.

“It was very unexpected,” Christie says. “I wasn’t expecting either of the awards, actually.”

The Beat the Clock film challenge gives teams 48 hours to write, shoot and edit a short film based on a prop and line of dialogue that is assigned to them. Groups are forced to think fast and on their feet as they scramble to submit their films on time.

“It kind of evens the playing field a little bit, you know?” says Jason Carney, executive director of the Phoenix Film Foundation. “You have to have a story and you have to execute it … and you have two days and all the expensive gear in the world is not going to save you if you have a bad idea.”

Filmmaking teams shot and edited from June 27 to 29, then submitted their entries to the competition. Now, a month later, every team that submitted a film got to have it screened in the theater, surrounded by their friends and family. For some of them, it was a dream come true.


“I always wanted to see something that I’ve worked on — the whole group has worked on — in a theater because I’m a really big sound nut,” says Stephen Garcia Jr. of Cinema Society AZ. He directed a film called "Creamed" for the competition

A panel of judges voted to choose the top three films, as well as a series of other awards, including best sound design, cinematography and more.

That being said, given how difficult it is to make a short film in 48 hours, even the groups that did not receive any awards appeared to be just as thrilled in the end.

Once the trophies were handed out, teams gathered in the theater to congratulate one another and discuss their favorite parts of each other’s movies. Only a Harkins employee flashing the lights on and off proved to be enough to end the post-ceremony mingling and get people to exit the theater.


Rebekah Varghese, IFP’s program director, says that bringing people together is the main intention behind challenges like “Beat the Clock” and every other IFP event.

“A lot of people meet future collaborators, friends — it’s a great community-building thing,” she says. “It’s great to see winners and great for the competition, but it’s even better to connect with everyone, I think.”

IFP is part of the Phoenix Film Foundation and is a sister organization of the film festival. It hosts an event every month and is open to the public.