If you're in the mood for Iron Chef-styled filmmaking challenges, this is definitely your month. Two such events are upon us; the third annual Calgary Super 8 Filmmakers Challenge on April 2 and the Calgary Underground Film Festival's second annual 48-hour Movie Making Challenge, screening mid-April. No, this isn't an April Fool's prank. This city actually has two extremely similar competitive movie-making events going on at almost exactly the same time. Local filmmaking enthusiasts should be overjoyed, unless they're too exhausted from making entries in both events.

Each event challenges entrants to make films based on randomly selected elements, such as props or lines of dialogue. The main difference is that Super 8 entrants don't have to pay entry fees and get three whole months to make their masterpieces, while 48-hour Challenge contestants have to complete their entire film over the course of one weekend for a chance at winning fabulous prizes such as an Avid editing suite.

Let's hope that Calgary's vibrant filmmaking community can get behind both events. At least things are better than the even bigger coincidence last year, when both events took place on the same day.