The Movies at Meadville will be one of three venues in Pennsylvania participating in the 12th annual international Manhattan Short Films Festival next Thursday, Sept. 30 at 7:30 p.m.
Selected audiences from 203 cities all over the world are invited to judge 10 15–minute films from around the world — Australia, Canada, England, Germany, Croatia, Ireland, Mexico, France, Poland and Italy. Filmgoers will be handed a voting card upon entry, which will then be submitted to the festival headquarters in Manhattan.
The winner will be announced in New York City on Sunday, Oct. 3 at 10:00 p.m.
Organizers have dubbed the event the “United Nations of film festivals.”
According to the Manhattan Short Films Festival press release, Nicholas Mason, Manhattan Short founder and director said the following:
“While the goal of any festival is to discover and promote new talent, the real aim of this festival is to bring communities together via stories from around the world.”
This year marks the third year the Movies at Meadville have participated in the voting process.
The Movies at Meadville Manager Paul McNulty is pleased, again, to be a part of the festival.
“We don’t want to be a movie theater; we want to be a community event place,” said McNulty.
The finalist films, chosen from over 400 entries, are as varied in content and style as the countries from which their creators originate.
The English short is about a lonely man in a café (pining, of course, for the waitress with whom he can’t bring himself to speak to) who gets a surprise chance presented to him.
The French entry is an animated film (using a “camera wrapping” technique that projects a painting onto a 3D model) about a European traveler in Madagascar witnessing the traditions of the Famadihana . The Famadihana is a funeral custom of the Malagasy people in which the bones of the dead are brought from the crypts and rewrapped.
In the Australian short film, a woman whose clothes are stolen from a community pool, must face, not only a long bike ride home but also the conflicting nature between family life and sexuality (Australia).
Past finalists have been nominated for and have won the short film category for the Oscars.
“When I think about the winner of last year’s, I get chills,” McNulty said.
According to the Manhattan Short press release, the festival “has become known as a testing ground for the next big thing.”
The buzz of the global festival may be catching on in town.
“It’s getting bigger and bigger every year, so I would def try to have people get their tickets in advance,” McNulty said. “It’s going to be one show — 250 seats. Once that sells out, it’s done.”

Tickets are on sale now for $10 per person at the Movies at Meadville. Call in advance at (814) 333-2727 to reserve your seat.