ONE WORLD. ONE WEEK. ONE FESTIVAL.
The fan-favorite film festival returns to LPCA!
Discover your inner film critic by casting your vote for Best Film and Best Actor! You’ll join film lovers in over 500 venues across the globe gathering to see the Ten Finalists in this year’s event. With past finalists garnering Oscar nominations and short films continuing to move into the Hollywood mainstream, come see this entertaining program featuring the best short films in the world today! Ballots supplied upon entry.
What is MANHATTAN SHORT?
Join us when over 100,000 film lovers unite in over 400 venues worldwide to view and vote for the next generation of filmmakers.
The 2023 Final Ten MANHATTAN SHORT finalists hailed from seven countries with films from Australia, Afghanistan, Finland, Iran, Switzerland, UK and Canada alongside three films from the USA. These Final Ten Films represented the best short films from among 850 submissions from 72 countries received by MANHATTAN SHORT for 2023 – a testimony to the enduring vibrancy and creativity of short films worldwide.
The 2023 line-up was linked by a common theme: how we face adversity, whether it is imposed by others or arises from personal circumstances. The ten short films in the program featured narratives that were dramatic, sometimes humorous, occasionally magical and always inspirational!
All Final Ten short films become Oscar-qualified, meaning they are automatically eligible for an Academy Award nomination by screening for a week at the Arena CineLounge in Hollywood in the county of Los Angeles.
MANHATTAN SHORT is not a touring festival; rather, it is an instantaneous celebration that occurs simultaneously across the globe, bringing great films to great venues and allowing the audiences to select their favorites. If the film festival experience truly is about getting great works in front of as many eyes as possible, MANHATTAN SHORT offers the ultimate platform – one that sees its films screened in Sydney, Mumbai, Moscow, Kathmandu, Vienna, Cape Town to cinemas in all fifty states of the United States and beyond!
MANHATTAN SHORT began in 1998, when founder Nicholas Mason gathered an audience of 200 people and showed 16 short films on a screen mounted to the side of a truck on Mulberry Street, Little Italy, New York City. A year later the Festival moved uptown to Union Square Park, where audiences grew to love the annual event. From these humble beginnings, MANHATTAN SHORT has now transformed into a worldwide phenomenon. Celebrating its 27th birthday in 2024, MANHATTAN SHORT is the only film festival on the planet to unfold simultaneously, in more than 500 cinemas on six continents, bringing over 100,000 film-lovers in all corners of the globe together for one week, via the next generation of filmmakers.
You Be the Judge!
The judges of the finalists’ films are YOU! Audiences at each venue will be handed a voting card upon entry to each cinema and asked to vote for the ONE film they think should win. Votes are tallied by each cinema and sent through to MANHATTAN SHORT HQ.
How do I find out who the winners are?
The winners of MANHATTAN SHORT Film Festival will be announced on the home page at ManhattanShort.com.
