Manhattan Short Film Festival 2026
Sept. 25 and 26 at 7:00 p.m.,
Sept. 27 at 3:00 p.m.
Park View Room, 230 Park Ave
What is the Manhattan Short Film Festival?
MANHATTAN SHORT is the only event of its kind. The ten Finalists will screen simultaneously across the world during a one-week period, with the Best Film and Best Actor awards determined by ballots cast by the audiences in each participating venue. By virtue of their selection by MANHATTAN SHORT, each short film is automatically Oscar-qualified. The Ten MANHATTAN SHORT Finalists hail from ten countries with films from Australia, Cuba, Georgia, Ireland, Mexico, Moldova, Russia, South Africa, the UK, and the US.
The ten Finalists were selected from over 800 entries from 74 countries. This year marks the first time in MSFF's 29 year history that they have chosen ten films from ten different countries. Now, you get to choose which of these Final Ten films is best! These films will screen in over 500 cities in six continents September 24-October 4. And the judges of these films are you, the audience. On entry to each venue, you will be handed a ballot card that allows you to VOTE for the BEST SHORT FILM and ACTOR at the conclusion of the program. Winners will be announced at ManhattanShort.com on Monday, October 5, at 10am EST.
10 Short Film Finalists
Small Talk
Director: Eduardo Moral
Country: USA
Running Time: 8 minutes, 40 seconds
Synopsis: In a decaying, neon-lit city where automation has quietly replaced nearly every human job, Jack, a weary cab driver, clings to the last traces of humanity the only way he knows how… through small talk. His retro-futuristic cab becomes a confessional booth for the displaced. A teacher, a mechanic, a doctor, each passenger shares how artificial intelligence stripped them of their livelihoods. What begins as idle chatter deepens into a haunting meditation on identity, purpose, and the fragile dignity of human connection in a world that no longer needs humans.
Mary Is Missing
Director: Aisling Byrne
Country: Ireland
Running Time: 22 minutes
Synopsis: When care worker Mary vanishes without a trace, a detective must decipher the conflicting accounts of key-witnesses to uncover not just what happened, but why they might be hiding the truth. As reports from the eyewitnesses become more and more confounding, we are asked to explore the reliability of truth, the strangeness of fiction, and the people we choose to believe.
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Candy Bar
Director: Nash Edgerton
Country: Australia
Running Time: 6 minutes, 19 seconds
Synopsis: A grieving young girl tells a man in the movie theater concession line that he looks like her dad. Their awkward and emotionally gripping interaction leaves him unexpectedly longing for fatherhood.
Vultures
Director: Dian Weys
Country: South Africa
Running Time: 15 minutes
Synopsis: Paul is a hot-headed tow truck driver working in a territorial and ruthless towing industry. Struggling to make ends meet, he is elated when he is the first to arrive at a grisly car accident. But the situation quickly spirals out of his control. A tense and claustrophobic parable on competition in the world of work and the social fractures in contemporary South Africa.
Life Goes On
Director: Kat Butterfield & Daniel Audritt
Country: United Kingdom
Running Time: 20 minutes
Synopsis: At 83, confined to a hospice bed, Bill finds himself caught in a cruel and absurd glitch: every time he dies, the day begins again. Balancing dark humor with quiet tenderness, the film explores mortality and what it means to truly finish a life - and whether we ever really can.
Hai Davai!
Director: Vlad Gradescu
Country: Moldova
Running Time: 16 minutes
Synopsis: On the cusp of leaving her rural Moldovan village for a new life abroad, Nina is stopped, quite literally, by an old superstition: a black cat has crossed the road. Her worried Grandmother refuses to let her pass, citing bad luck. What begins as a petty standoff quickly spirals into a bizarre, yet heartwarming village-wide standstill.
Pickup
Director: Viktoriia Lapushkina
Country: Russia
Running Time: 3 minutes
Synopsis: Shy girl Di attends Oksana’s dating coaching program to learn how women have to “level up” if they want to “get a guy.” After getting a prompt regarding what she needs to do in order to socialize with men, Di sets out to find her match.
Norheimsund
Director: Ana A. Alpziar
Country: Cuba
Running Time: 12 minutes
Synopsis: A girl’s long-distance romance with an older Norwegian man promises to pull her and her mother from their austere life in Cuba, but her dreams are shaken when she realizes he is not as idyllic as he seems.
When the Sea Was Calm
Director: Mamuka Tkeshelashvili
Country: Georgia
Running Time: 17 minutes
Synopsis: In a hand-crafted animation, a 13-year-old boy experiences first love in 1992, on the eve of civil war between the Georgian government and a separatist movement. Decades later, he returns to the ruined city of Sokhumi, chasing a summer that can never return.
Never Give Up!
Director: Tamás Yvan Topolánszky
Country: Mexico
Running Time: 19 minutes
Synopsis: After a deadly border crossing separates him from his mother, a young boy is left alone in the desert. He clings to a damaged phone and carries with him the words she taught him to live by: never give up.
You be the judge!
Which of these Final Ten short films is best? That is up to a worldwide audience to decide. Cinema-goers across the United States and around the globe will become instant film critics as they are handed a ballot (See example below) upon entry that allows them to vote for the Best Film and Actor. MANHATTAN SHORT is the ultimate audience award that salutes the creative talents of both directors behind the camera and actors in front of it. Votes will be sent through to MANHATTAN SHORT HQ with the winner announced at ManhattanShort.com on Monday Oct 5 at 10 AM EST.
