Phoenix was one of more than 300 cities chosen to participate in a 10-day global film festival that started last week and will end Oct. 6 with a local screening at FilmBar.
The Manhattan Short Film Festival is an annual showing of international, independently made short films. The 10 finalists were chosen by a panel of experts from around the globe. Those films are being screened at galleries, theaters, museums and universities in participating cities, including Phoenix, for 10 days from Sept. 26 to Oct. 5.
Phoenix Art Museum on Central Avenue and McDowell Road showed a film Wednesday night and FilmBar on Second and Garfield streets will screen a film Sunday.
Attendees at each location vote for their favorite movie and the overall winner will be announced Oct. 6, according to the festival’s website.
“This year marks the 17th annual Manhattan Short Film Festival, there were 589 entries this year,” said Nicholas Mason, Manhattan Short Film Festival’s founder.
Previous Manhattan Short Film Festivals have produced highly regarded short films, said Perry Allen, Phoenix Art Museum film curator. The past two winners of the Academy Award for Best Short Film were entries in this event.
Allen has run the film program at the Phoenix Art Museum for about a year. He shows films that correlate with the current themes of the museum, Allen said.
“The members here love cinema, they’re devout patrons who challenge me to find great films,” Perry said.
Of the 10 films shown at the festival, eight were from countries other than the U.S., including England, Mexico and Germany.
The films had diverse tones, directional styles and stories. The first film, titled “97%,” is a comedy about a man on the subway trying to deduce who a phone app says is his 97 percent love match, said to be within 25 meters of him on the train.
The short “The Bravest, The Boldest” is an emotional story about a mother trying to avoid army officials so they cannot tell her that her son has died in combat. And a documentary called “Crime: The Animated Series” features real people telling their crime stories while an animation depicted their experiences.
Two entries, “Rhino Full Throttle” and “Mend and Make Do,” combined stop-motion animation with live action to make objects seemingly come alive.
Dawn Conry, one of Phoenix Art Museum’s “reel members,” as Perry calls them, worked with the Arizona Film Festival. Conry said she voted for “Rhino Full Throttle” because it was “well-scripted with a unique blend of cinematic styles.”
“Rhino Full Throttle” and the “The Fall” were the two films attendees said they voted for the most.
Tickets for Sunday’s screening at FilmBar are available for $10 on the theater’s website.
Contact the reporter at arhassar@asu.edu
