IMAGE VIA MANHATTAN SHORT FILM FESTIVAL
The 29th annual Manhattan Short Film Festival (Website) screens at Enzian Theater (Website) in Maitland on Monday, September 28, at 6 p.m., with audiences joining more than 500 venues worldwide to vote for Best Film and Best Actor.
The 140-minute program features 10 finalists from around the world, with past finalists having gone on to earn Oscar nominations, according to the official press release.
This year’s lineup includes:
- “Small Talk” from the United States, following a cab driver preserving human connection through conversation in a future dominated by AI.
- “Mary Is Missing” from Ireland follows a detective investigating the disappearance of a care worker.
- Australia’s “Candy Bar” centers on a young girl who spots a man resembling her father in a candy store line.
- South Africa’s “Vultures” follows a tow truck driver protecting his tow in the chaotic aftermath of a crash.
- UK’s “Life Goes On” traces a man in end-of-life care stuck in a time loop that resets each time his heart stops.
- Moldova’s “Hai Davai” follows a woman stopped from leaving her village by an old superstition.
- Russia’s “Pickup” centers on a shy participant in a pickup workshop who meets a man on the verge of ending his life.
- Cuba’s “Norheimsund” follows a girl whose long-distance romance offers an escape from hardship, until cracks begin to show.
- Georgia’s “When the Sea Was Calm” is a silent, hand-crafted animated short exploring memory and exile tied to pre-war Sokhumi.
- Hungary and Mexico’s “Never Give Up!” follows a boy attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border guided only by his mother’s final words.
Tickets are available HERE.
