One World. One Week. One Festival. Join a worldwide audience – watching and voting on the same ten shorts!

Presented by the Durango Independent Film Festival, the Manhattan Short Film Festival is once again coming to the Durango Arts Center – one of 500 global venues screening the same 10 short films in the same week. On September 26, 2024, you will be the judge of which film and actor wins this prestigious cinema contest.

Durango audiences will be joining over 100,000 film lovers across six continents who gather during the same week for one reason: to view and vote on the Finalists' Films in the 27th Annual MANHATTAN SHORT Film Festival. You’re the juror at this festival. Every film that We the People screen will be eligible to enter the 2025 Oscar competition!

“This is one of Durango Film’s fan favorites every year. The shorts are always amazing, varied and genuinely Oscar-worthy,. The feedback we get is that folks love participating in a global cinema event,” according to Carol L. Fleisher, Executive Director of the Durango Independent Film Festival.

The MANHATTAN SHORT finalists hail from nine countries with films from United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Ukraine, Italy, France, Croatia, Australia, Ireland alongside two films from the USA. These Final Ten Films represent the best short films from among 872 submissions from 74 countries received by MANHATTAN SHORT for 2024, testimony to the enduring vibrancy and creativity of short films worldwide.

Please visit durangofilm.org to get your tickets for the 4pm or 7pm screenings at the Durango Arts Center. $20 each.

The Durango Independent Film Festival brings independent films and filmmakers to Colorado’s Four Corners via an annual international festival, film events throughout the year, and a film commission office that facilitates storytelling production throughout our region. We share films and filmmaking opportunities to build both community and our local economy. Please join us for our 20th Anniversary DIFF March 5–9, 2025.