If you were driving along I-79 the night of June 8 and saw a car breeze by, it just might have been filmmakers trying to meet the deadline for Pittsburgh's 48 Hour Film competition. One team traveling that route made it with seconds to spare.

Although winners won't be named until Friday, entries were due earlier this month. Moviemakers were required to write, cast, costume, direct, produce, shoot, score, edit and deliver a movie in 48 hours.

Rick Frisco, local producer of the event for the second year in a row, reports that 27 teams, ranging from three to 26 members each, participated and all finished (although three were late and another three had technical trouble that bumped them into the late submission category).

Films averaged 6 minutes and 32 seconds and covered 16 genres, everything from road trip, drama and comedy to romance, sci-fi, detective, silent film and fable. About half of the entrants were repeat participants and Frisco says this year's batch of submissions "blows last year's away," and they were darned strong.

Entries, all created during a wilting weekend of 90-degree temperatures, were screened earlier this week at the Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall, 300 Beechwood Ave. in Carnegie.

That is also where a best-of screening and awards ceremony (32 best-of awards, plus honorable mentions) will be held Friday at 7 p.m. Tickets, $5, can be purchased at the door starting at 6 p.m.

A free party afterward, at roughly 9:30 p.m., will be held at nearby Cefalo's Restaurant and Night Club, 428 Washington Ave., Carnegie.

The top Pittsburgh winner will compete against winners from other cities in October. The best five national teams will face off in the HD Filmmaker Showdown, sponsored by Panasonic, with cameras and cash prizes at stake.

Go to www.48hourfilm.com/pittsburgh/ for more information about the competition, including filmmaker blogs that pull back the curtain on sleep deprivation, the peripatetic search for props, driving on deadline, uncooperative computers and debit cards and imaginations in overdrive.

Karolyn Grimes, famous for playing little Zuzu Bailey in "It's a Wonderful Life," will be at the Jimmy Stewart Museum in Indiana, Pa., early Saturday afternoon to greet fans, pose for photos and sign autographs.

Born July 4, 1940, in Hollywood, the young actress had appeared in four films before the role that gave her the memorable line: "Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings."

In "It's a Wonderful Life," her character is home in bed with a cold when Stewart's George Bailey arrives in a dither over a missing bank deposit. George tucks the petals from a flower at Zuzu's bedside into his watch pocket and they disappear when he wishes he had never been born. Their reappearance near the movie's end confirms he is back among the living.

Grimes, who also worked with John Wayne, Cary Grant, Bing Crosby, Loretta Young, Fred MacMurray, Betty Grable and Danny Kaye, will be at the museum, 835 Philadelphia St., Saturday from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.

On Monday morning, she will tour the section of Indiana Regional Medical Center called the It's a Wonderful New Life Maternity Center. The public then is invited to join hospital employees, physicians and guests for an autograph session in the main lobby of the hospital from 10 to 11 a.m.

See www.indianahospital.org for a map to the hospital. Go to www.jimmy.org for the museum.

The movies may not be brand new, but they are free -- which is music to most parents' ears these days. The SouthSide Works Cinema this month launched a Summer Splash series, with free movies Tuesdays at 11:30 a.m. All are rated PG.

Scheduled to be shown:

• "Hoodwinked," Tuesday

• "Daddy Day Camp," July 1

• "Bee Movie," July 8

• "Firehouse Dog," July 15

• "Surf's Up," July 22

• "Alvin and the Chipmunks," July 29

• "The Spiderwick Chronicles," Aug. 5.

Giant Eagle and radio stations Q92.9 and BobFM 96.9 are sponsors. The theater is part of the SouthSide Works complex near the Hot Metal Bridge. Go to www.sswcinema.com for information.