The annual MANHATTAN SHORT Film Festival will make its 21st appearance this year (September 27 – Oct 7, 2018), maintaining its status of the only film festival of its kind where filmgoers can unite in over 350 cities to watch and cast their ballots for the next generation of short film makers from around the world. When the final films are screened internationally, Best Film and Best Actor award will be determined by audiences at this year’s participating venues. http://manhattanshort.com/screening-venues.html  Film genres this year will include dramas, a film shot entirely underwater, fast-paced animation and a World War II epic, to name a few.

“Twenty -one years ago, I started the MANHATTAN SHORT FILM FESTIVAL when I mounted a screen to the side of a truck in Mulberry Street in Little Italy in New York City to a crowd of just over 200 people,” said Founding Director, Nicholas Mason. “This year, there will be over 100,000 film lovers gathered in over 300 venues across six continents for the same event. Looking back, what fascinates me most is the MANHATTAN SHORT was never once reliant on celebrities or corporate sponsors to exist. It has always been about great films, a great concept, great venues and an appreciative audience. It is that combination that makes MANHATTAN SHORT one of the largest short film festivals in the world today.  I’m so proud to be part of it because it is the public who have created it.”

Austria, Germany, Hungary, Kosovo, New Zealand, the UK and United States are the countries debuting films at this year’s festival. In Home Shopper (USA), director Dev Patel tells the story of a woman in an empty marriage that finds comfort from a home shopping channel that offers her both salvation and explains of her slow undoing. Based on a true story, Someone (Germany), is the tale of Russia’s Red Army bent on revenge for atrocities committed by the German army during WWII. In, Lacrimosa (Austria), director Tanja Mairitsch brings us to an underwater world of surreal and ever changing landscapes, as we follow a young woman who discovers her lost lover and navigates the complicated world of that relationship.

Other cinema’s in Manhattan will screen short films concurrently, like the Roxy Underground Film Festival (RUFF), which is held monthly at the Roxy Cinema Tribeca. The RUFF series is led by indie film maker, Amos Poe and Roxy Cinema Tribeca Curator Illyse Singer. This month’s series will take place on October 30th at 7pm. During the film festival, Roxy Cinema screen’s short films (no longer than 20-minutes), followed by 15-minute Q&As with artists.

For more information, please visit roxycinematribeca.com/blog/film-festival/ and  http://manhattanshort.com

Words by Rocky Casale