It’s time once again to head to the ballot box and to make our votes and voices heard.
No, not for politics. For something that actually offers a broad range of choices, encourages genuine debate, and results in an election that we can all be proud to have participated in.
That’s right, it’s the Manhattan Short Film Festival, that most anticipated annual cinephile tradition that brings the whole, wide moviegoing world together each year to view, discuss, and crown a winner from among some of the best that the up-and-coming film world has to offer.
As ever, the globally simultaneous fest will return to the Oklahoma City Museum of Art’s Sam Noble Theater September 25th through October 5th, with ballots waiting to be cast and counted following every screening.
The ten finalists for this year dive deep into gender politics, generational gaps, refugee crises, and family tensions. So it’s safe to say that the subject matter on display is all pretty raw and relevant.
“I’ve found that the entries that come into this festival are really more revealing of how the world is feeling than anything else,” festival founder Nicholas Mason told me over the phone ahead of the fest’s 2023 installment. “They’re very good at intertwining that story around the cultures and politics within their boundaries or country.”
That continues to be true each year, but this time around, many of the stories seem to bring those politics and boundaries into the home and into the family dynamic.
So let’s take a peek at what you can expect in this year’s Manhattan Short lineup, shall we?
‘Al Fresco’
From Spain comes this subtle, one-shot comedy about the hurdles, hustles, and massive compromises of renting in the modern housing market.
Told entirely in a single 7-minute tracking shot, you get a thorough tour of what might just be the best deal you can find right now for a room in the city.
‘Beyond Silence’
A deep, dramatic examination of one of the most horrific and traumatic experiences and the struggle between speaking up and remaining silent, “Beyond Silence” comes from The Netherlands by way of writer/director Marnie Blok.
Blok wrote the film from her own tragic lived experience, but she wanted to expand the scope of the story being told to include the multi-generational conflict between the need to confront and call out abuse and the traditional thinking that tells victims to suffer in silence.
‘Chasing the Party’
Produced by Oscar-winning actor Sam Rockwell and co-starring indie darling director Joe Swanberg, director Jessie Komitor’s “Chasing the Party” explores the irrepressible excitements, high hopes, and illusion-shattering realities of teenagerdom in the city.
Following two 17 year-old girls on the NYC party scene of 2007 – at the peak of “indie sleaze” and underground mayhem – “Chasing the Party” pulls back the curtain on their bright, glamorous dreams to show how quickly the world can grow dark.
‘Em & Selma Go Griffin Hunting’
You don’t often see indie shorts exploring full-on fantasy with major studio-level special effects, but then you don’t often see a filmmaker spend four years developing a short.
But director Alexander Thompson committed to putting everything he could muster into this tale of a mother taking her daughter on her first hunt for the mythical creature, a rite of passage that will cement her journey into womanhood.
‘I Have My Reasons’
British TV producer and casting director Mikey Altoft stepped into the head writer/director role for “I Have My Reasons,” a look into a woman’s life and the childhood events that helped to shape her as she’s being grilled by her new coworkers during a night out.
Altoft originally wrote the piece as an acting showcase for lead Lisa Jones to use in casting auditions, so it was designed to run the full gamut of emotions and revelations.
‘Ovary-Acting’
Told through hand-crafted stop-motion, this Scandinavian animated comedy confronts the pressures of parenthood placed on young women and the societal expectations that can lead to so much confusion and stress.
In director Ida Melum’s oddball allegory, those pressures are made explicit when a woman in her 30s unexpectedly gives birth to her own anthropomorphized reproductive organs.
‘Paradise Man (ii)’
A standout animated entry at this year’s Sundance Film Festival before carving out a space among the finalists here, director/animator Jordan Michael Blake’s “Paradise Man (ii)” takes a novel approach to practically element of its filmmaking.
The narration is slow and underwound, the animation is largely developed from gifs, none of the characters has a face, and the whole thing uses golf as a framework for confronting an unraveling existential crisis.
Which is all to say that Blake may be one of the most creative and electric voices in young filmmaking right now, something that Oklahomans already caught a glimpse of when another short that he penned, “Dead Enders,” played deadCenter in 2023.
‘Passarinho’
When you’re young, often the most important and all-consuming things in your life are your heroes, your friends, and your own confusingly evolving body. So it can be particularly hectic when all three collide, as in ‘Passarinho’ from Mexican director Natalia García Agraz.
The story of a girl dealing with her first period at the same time she and her friend are trying to meet their favorite star soccer player, ‘Passarinho’ was developed by Agraz to be a comedy, a confrontation of gender norms, and a heartfelt story of mothers and daughters all rolled into one.
‘We Have Sinned Before You’
Continuing the themes of family dynamics and deep revelations, director Ifat Nener Orgad’s “We Have Sinned Before You” examines a family attempting to reconnect and play a game at home during a religious holiday.
Of course, that just causes tensions to rise, secrets to come out, and bonds and understandings of one another to be tested.
‘Zodiac’
From Belgium comes this confrontation of empathy and of questions of belonging in the modern world as two friends on a fishing trip cross paths with a boatful of refugees in distress.
Filmed against the sprawling expanse of the sea itself, director Hans Buyse said that the story was inspired by news of a similar real-life tragedy bringing the harsh realities of the world too close for the comfort of those who would rather ignore it.
The 2025 Manhattan Short Film Festival will screen September 25th through October 5th at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, with voting ballots available at each screening.
For showtimes, tickets, and more information, visit okcmoa.com and manhattanshort.com.
Catch Brett Fieldcamp’s film column weekly for information and insights into the world of film in the Oklahoma City metro and Oklahoma. | Brought to you by the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
Brett Fieldcamp is our Arts and Entertainment Editor. He has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for 15+ years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
