Manhattan Short Film Festival 2026

Unleash your inner film critic at the 29th annual MANHATTAN SHORT FILM FESTIVAL, featuring 10 great new shorts from around the world – and YOU help select the winner!

One World – One Week – One Festival.  On September 29th, moviegoers in Tucson will unite with 100,000+ other moviegoers in over 500 cities across six continents to view and vote on 10 films selected as finalists in the 29th Annual Manhattan Short Film Festival.  Manhattan Short is the only film festival of its kind. The final 10 selections screen around the world during a one-week period and attendees vote for their favorites in Best Film and Best Actor categories.  Every short film selected to screen in the program automatically qualifies for the 2027 Academy Awards, so you won’t want to miss this opportunity to see the year’s best short films on the big screen here at The Loft Cinema!

The winners of Manhattan Short Film Festival will be announced on the festival home page at ManhattanShort.com on Monday, October 5th, 2026.

This year’s program:

Small Talk.  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. (Dir by Eduardo Moral, USA, 9 mins, Not Rated).

Mary is Missing.  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. (Dir. Aisling Byrne, Ireland, 22 mins., Not Rated)

Candy Bar.  A young girl thinks a man in the candy bar line looks like her dad. (Dir. by Nash Edgerton, Australia, 6 mins., Not Rated)

Vultures.  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. (Dir. by Jordan Dian Weys, South Africa, 22 mins., Not Rated)

Life Goes On.  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… (Dir. by Kat Butterfield & Daniel Audritt, UK, 19 mins., Not Rated)

Hai Davai.  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. (Dir. by Vlad Gradescu, Moldova, 16 mins., Not Rated)

Pickup.  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. (Dir.by Viktoriia Lapushkina, Russia, 3 mins., Not Rated)

Norheimsund.  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. (Dir. Ana A. Alpizar, Cuba, 12 mins., Not Rated)

When the Sea Was Calm.  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. (Dir. by Vladamir Katcharava, Georgia, 18 mins., Not Rated)

Never Give Up!  Alone in the desert, a young boy attempts to cross the U.S.—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. (Dir. by Tamás Yvan Topolánszky, Mexico/Hungary, 20 mins., Not Rated)

Total program running time: 165 mins. (includes intermission)