MANHATTAN SHORT Film Festival (29)

Festival Start: 24 September 2026      Festival Ende: 04 Oktober 2026

During one week of the year over 100,000 film-lovers gather in over 500 Cinemas across 6 Continents to view and vote on the Finalists Films in the 29th Annual MANHATTAN SHORT Film Festival - MANHATTAN SHORT is more than just one of the largest short film festivals in the world....it is the World's First Global Film Festival.

If making short films is about getting your work out there, nothing compares to MANHATTAN SHORT.

Every Film Selected is eligible to enter the Oscars:
MANHATTAN SHORT does a full week's advertised run in a cinema in Los Angeles, California. This theater booking means all ten finalists in the 2026 MANHATTAN SHORT Film Festival will be eligible to enter the Oscar competition for 2027. Many past Finalists from MANHATTAN SHORT have been nominated and even win the Oscar in the Festivals 29 year history.

MANHATTAN SHORT also conducts a screenplay competition for screenplay for short films only (20 pages and under)

Featured Musical Artist Competition:
MANHATTAN SHORT will be featuring a Musical Artist or Band leading up to and throughout the duration of the Festival each year. The selected Musician or Band will have his/her music featured in over four hundred venues and to over 100,000 people worldwide during the MANHATTAN SHORT intermission and in all promotional materials leading up to the festival dates, including exclusive headline billing on our website. This is a tremendous opportunity for new or unknown musical talent to have their music broadcast to our ready-made worldwide audience of eager festival attendees. It is also a unique chance to gain name recognition and immediate exposure. Entry forms are also available at the website: http://manhattanshort.com/musical-artist-competition.html

Screening Fee Shorts: 38$

All Films Selected automatically become eligible to enter the Oscars

The Gold Medal
The Silver Medal
The Bronze Medal
Best Actor
Best Screenplay
Featured Musical Artist

Films must be 20 minutes and under in length (minus credits).

We accept all genres and do not rule out anything.

For pre screening selection purposes we ask for either

a) Online Screeners
b) DVDs or Blu Ray sent to our mailing address

Filmmakers may also enter using Festhome.

Deadline for entries: July 31 each year. There are no late deadlines. Films must be in by Midnight on July 31st.


Selected films will be asked to submit their films as an Apple ProRes Quicktime file. Frame rate of (23.98).


MANHATTAN SHORT does a full week's run in a cinema in Los Angeles, California.