MANHATTAN SHORT today announces the Final Nine selections for its 23rd Annual Short Film Festival, a worldwide event taking place across six continents between September 24 and October 31, 2020. MANHATTAN SHORT is the only event of its kind. The Final Nine screen simultaneously across the world during a one-month period, with the Best Film and Best Actor determined by ballots cast by the audience in each participating venue.
The MANHATTAN SHORT Final Nine are: Safe Space (Australia), The Stick (Finland), Exam (Iran), Hey, Gray (Russia), White Eye (Israel), Sticker (North Macedonia), Two Little Boys (USA), Maestro (France) The Present (Palestine).
This year’s Final Nine selections use drama, comedy and animation to address an astonishing number of themes, ranging from identity to parenthood to the seemingly universal frustration caused by the Department of Motor Vehicles no matter the country. The directorial voices are both male and female from countries large and small, often inspired by personal and sometimes harrowing experience. This year’s Final Nine screening also is a rare instance when gripping dramas from Iran, Israel, and the State of Palestine are featured in the same program.
SAFE SPACE
Directed by: Jake Robb
Two detectives craft an intricate interrogation technique to intimidate an apparent witness to police corruption. (Australia)
THE STICK
Directed by: Teppo Airaksinen
Aava has but one wish: to get a dog. Meanwhile, her parent’s marriage is falling apart. (Finland)
EXAM
Directed by: Sonia K. Hadad
A teenage girl gets involved in the process of delivering a pack of cocaine to its client, and gets stuck in a weird cycle of occurrences. (Iran)
HEY, GRAY
Directed by: Nikita Khozyainov
At death’s door, a thriving businessman meets his old dog Gray, which he heartlessly threw out on the street many years ago. (Russia)
WHITE EYE
Written & Directed by: Tomer Shushan
A man finds his stolen bicycle, but now it belongs to a stranger. How much of himself will he lose to get it back? (Israel)
STICKER
Written & Directed by: Georgi M Unkovski
After an unsuccessful attempt to renew his automobile registration, Dejan falls into a bureaucratic trap that tests his determination to be a responsible father. (North Macedonia)
TWO LITTLE BOYS
Written & Directed by: Farbod Khoshtinat
A boy’s secret love for his closeted bully drives him into an unconventional road to confession and its consequences. (USA)
MAESTRO
Animators: Florian Babikian, Victor Caire
A stick-wielding squirrel conducts a nocturnal chorus of opera-loving forest creatures. (France)
THE PRESENT
Directed by: Farah Nabulsi
On his wedding anniversary, Yusef and his young daughter set out in the West Bank to buy his wife a gift. Between soldiers, segregated roads and checkpoints, how easy can it be to go shopping? (Palestine)
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, Vienna, Cape Town to cinemas in all fifty states of the United States and beyond.
