OKLAHOMA CITY – One of the most unique and empowering movie-going experiences of the year is back again at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art as the Manhattan Short Film Festival once again invites audiences worldwide to crown a winner from among ten short film finalists.
Since 1998, the defiantly indie showcase of short film fare from round the world has rewritten the rules of what an award-granting festival can be, tossing the stuffy board and judges panel in favor of direct-ballot voting from the global audience of viewers themselves.
And OKCMOA has become the proud local home for the fest in Oklahoma City, with the 2026 installment already underway and running through Saturday, October 3rd.
So let’s again dive headlong into this year’s competition and check out what you can expect from the ten hopeful finalist films.
‘Small Talk’
As timely and relevant as the Manhattan Short selections often are, Eduardo Moral’s “Small Talk” offers a motion-captured, animated glimpse into a post-modernist, hyper-capitalized New York where practically everything is handled and automated by AI.
But amongst the algorithm-driven bustle, a human cab driver insists on making simple, interpersonal chit-chat to keep the barest bones of human connection alive.
‘Mary is Missing’
From Ireland comes this intriguing mystery tale about a detective arriving at a community care service for adults with intellectual disabilities and attempting to find some insights into the disappearance of the titular Mary.
Director Aisling Byrne constructed the film collaboratively with the group Run of the Mill, an arts and acting collective for adults with disabilities that she helped to found.
‘Candy Bar’
Sometimes the best short films are just brief explorations of the simplest, most loaded premise, and the fun is all about unpacking that simplicity to see what’s inside.
That’s the case with “Candy Bar,” an Australian short about a young girl that thinks a man in line for candy looks like her father.
‘Vultures’
From South African director Dian Weys, this already award-winning Cannes selection follows the fraught moments following a violent car crash and the desperate tow truck driver that’s trying to get some work from the situation.
Weys said the premise actually grew from his own experiences being involved in wrecks for real in South Africa and the tow truck drivers that he saw move in quickly hoping to exploit the confusion and chaos.
‘Life Goes On’
Featuring the remarkable talents of British acting legend David Bradley and the golden-voiced comedic genius that is Matt Berry, “Life Goes On” marries one of the most depressing scenarios of modern life to one of the most overused storytelling tropes, and turns them both into something shockingly creative and funny.
Bradley stars as an elderly man dying alone in hospice care, but every time he finally dies, he finds himself looping back to wake up and live his final day again in a classic “Groundhog Day” situation, but in the worst possible circumstance.
But it’s very much a comedy as he tries to make the most of his possibly infinite – if limited and woefully medicated – life.
‘Hai Davai’
There are some superstitions that just seem to be universal and worldwide, no matter the culture or community, and this Moldovan entry explores one of them.
When a young woman in a small town is attempting to finally leave and head out to the world, her path crosses with a black cat, leaving her scared, superstitious grandmother to prevent her from going any further.
‘Pickup’
A shy young woman in a “pickup” workshop – a day class teaching women how to woo and pick up men – decides to duck out to the roof for a smoke, but she’s startled to find a man up there ready to jump.
Of course, he might be just the right guy for her to try working her charms on.
‘Norheimsund’
One of the strengths of the Manhattan Short Film Festival each year is the ability to see such a wildly broad range of emotions, tones, and human experiences, from some hysterically funny, punchline-hitting pieces to some beautifully emotional and deep short dramas.
“Norheimsund” surely falls into the latter category.
The first film in Manhattan Short history to hail from Cuba, it’s the intimate story of a struggling mother and daughter who find their bond strained when the girl is approached by a Norwegian man that offers to take her away to a better life that might be darker than they realize.
‘When the Sea was Calm’
This meticulously handcrafted Georgian stop motion film examines the toll that modern war takes on lives, loves, and the threads of community as the gentle calm of daily life in Sokhumi is thrashed by the Abkhazian War of the 1990s and the ethnic cleansing that came in its wake.
But maybe even more remarkable is that filmmakers Mamuka Tkeshelashvili and Vladimer Katcharava – both Georgians with a vivid and harrowed memory of the war – tell the whole story of the city here with no dialogue.
‘Never Give Up’
A small Mexican boy attempts to cross the border into America alone with nothing to guide, push, or carry him except the three final words that his mother said to him.
But this deeply relevant and presently vital tale comes, unexpectedly, from Hungarian director Tamás Yvan Topolánszky, who said that he was drawn to the scenario after recognizing the same racially charged and violently populist rhetoric coming from recent American politics that he’d heard for years from Hungary’s own nationalist rulers.
The 2026 installment of the Manhattan Short Film Festival screens now through Saturday, October 3rd at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
For more, visit manhattanshort.com and okcmoa.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 the owner and Editor in Chief of Oklahoma City Free Press. He has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly two decades and served as Arts & Entertainment Editor before purchasing the company from founder Brett Dickerson in 2026.
He is also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
