Discover your inner film critic by casting your vote for Best Film and Best Actor in the 29th Annual Manhattan Short Film Festival!
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.
The Manhattan Short 2026 fest screens a worldwide line-up of 10 short films that explore a wide range of topics relevant to everyone. Have a look at both dramatic and comical takes on migration, reconciliation, housing prices, parenthood and the price of silence, not to mention the trials and tribulations of growing into adulthood, especially when fantastical and dangerous griffins fly overhead and you have an OMG murderous mother. And what is it about golf anyway? Audiences will find it more difficult than ever to vote for Best Film and Best Actor.
For the first time in its history, Manhattan Short has selected ten films from ten countries, with films from USA, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, United Kingdom, Moldova, Russia, Cuba, Georgia and Mexico making up Manhattan Short 2026. "Since 9/11 my vision for this Festival has been to create a filmic Olympiad. An event consisting of ten quality shorts from ten separate countries that joins the world, and finally in 2026 we've managed to do that. I'm very excited for the reaction it receives from our worldwide audiences," says Nicholas Mason, founding director of Manhattan Short Film Festival.
Voting ballots will be supplied upon entry. Winners announced at ManhattanShort.com Monday, Oct 5th.
The Manhattan Short Final Ten are:
Small Talk (USA): In a neon-drenched future where AI has consumed nearly every profession, a weary cab driver preserves the last traces of humanity the only way he can...through small talk.
Mary Is Missing (Ireland): When care worker Mary vanishes without a trace, Detective Foley arrives at the Yellow Tree Day Service, and investigations begin. 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.
Candy Bar (Australia): A young girl thinks a man in the candy bar line looks like her dad.
Vultires (South Africa): In the volatile moments after a car crash, before the authorities arrive, a hot-headed yet desperate tow truck driver fiercely protects his tow. But the situation quickly spirals out of his control.
Life Goes On (United Kingdom): Bill is in end-of-life care waiting for the sweet release of death -- but unfortunately for him, he's stuck in an infinite time loop, causing the day to restart the second his heart stops...
Hai Davai (Moldova): 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 crosses the road. Citing bad luck, her worried grandmother refuses to let her pass.
Pickup (Russia): At a pickup workshop, every girl gets a mission -- flirt, charm, and win. For Di, the shyest one in the room, the task is simple: ask a guy to buy her coffee. Passing by her more confident "competitors," she ends up on a rooftop smoking area, where she meets Alex -- a man about to end his life.
Norheimsund (Cuba): 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 isn't as idyllic as he seems
When the Sea was Calm (Georgia): When the Sea Was Calm is a silent, hand-crafted Georgian animated short that transforms memories of pre-war Sokhumi into a poetic story of childhood, first love, exile, and the dream of return.
Never Give Up! (Mexico, Hungary): Alone in the desert, a young boy attempts to cross the US-Mexico border guided only by his mother's final words: never give up. An unexpected source of hope leads him toward a twist that redefines survival.
Read interviews with each finalist here!
Film Prices
Lincoln Theatre Members get $3.00 off on the following prices when buying tickets at-the-door:
General: $12.00
Seniors, Students, and Active Military: $11.00
Children 12 and under: $9.50
All prices include a $2.00 Preservation Fee that goes directly into our capital account for the preservation of the Lincoln Theatre and its programs.