The festival celebrates their 27th year of celebrating short films in over 500 different venues across six different continents. As part of the celebration, audience members were greeted with a paper shortly summarizing the films, a bag of popcorn and a small card to vote for their favorite movie and which actor left the biggest mark.
This year’s finalists featured films from the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Ukraine, Italy, France, Australia, Croatia, Ireland and two from the United States.
Each film selected as a finalist was automatically eligible for nominations at the 2025 Oscar’s. And they’re well deserved. From stories focused on what it would take to make an AI human, to humorous love stories between a Mr. Dickley and a Miss Estrogenia, every film brings a unique sense of self through the actors, directors, and production teams’ involved.
“The Talent” from the United Kingdom, directed by Thomas May Bailey, follows an ambiguously gendered production assistant on a commercial set who finds themselves yearning for the affection and attention of the commercial’s star. Using the juxtaposed throughline of knowing what you want but not knowing how to get it, the film follows the assistant’s attempts at gaining this star’s attention, ultimately resulting in a fascinating 15 minute exploration of desire and masculinity.
“I’m Not a Robot” from the Netherlands is directed by Victoria Warmerdam. The film opens with the protagonist facing a familiar situation for many: failing a series of captcha tests to log into an email account. After becoming excessively frustrated, the story quickly turns from a humorous scenario to a sobering question about what really defines humanity.
“The Mother” is an adaptation of a true story about a Ukrainian family during the start of the war and was directed by Mariia Felenko. A daughter tries desperately to get her mother to leave the country with her, but her mother is instead focused on seemingly trivial things like her pedicure, as well as gifts and promises from a mysterious new romance. The story is based on “When the Whales Run” by Kate Uteva, and showcases the terror and difficulties faced in Ukraine as their mundane lives are threatened every day.
“Dovecote” is an Italian near-silent film directed by Marco Perego following a woman (played by Zoe Saldana) who is in their last day at a prison. The short film quietly explores the caring communities that are found in times of distress. Even without sound, the film captures the tender care and affection each woman holds for the rest of their newfound sisterhood.
“Pathological,” an American dark comedy, pivots the festival’s mood with the first openly comedic film. Allison Rich both directs and stars in the film as the titular character Juliet. Juliet believes she’s too boring for her colleagues at work and can’t help but make up extravagant tales about going to Oxford and having a former-model-current-NASA-neurosurgeon boyfriend, among others. This comes back to bite her when she wakes up and finds all of her lies have suddenly become true – including ones that make her life much worse. Beneath the darkly comedic story is a narrative about Juliet coming to terms with online perceptions, not needing to lie to be interesting and accepting that sometimes other people will not want to be friends.
“Alarms” is a French short directed by Nicolas Panay that puts the audience into the mind of a construction foreman named Pierre as he juggles the ever-growing stresses of a rushed construction site, alongside those of his personal life. Throughout the film is a constant beeping of one alarm or another, persisting enough to even drown out some of the character’s talking until you learn to ignore it. Once the alarms have been successfully turned off, Pierre and the audience both realize there’s more danger than at first realized.
“Favourites” is another dark comedy for the festival, and at only 5 minutes long, Australian director Nick Russell delivers a sickeningly effective (and hilarious) short about two parents forced to make a supposedly impossible choice on a camping trip with their two children.
Nebojša Slijepčević directs the Croatian/Bulgarian film “The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent,” based on a true story from 1993 about a man named Tomo Buzov. Buzov is the man who stands for what is right, speaking out against an unnamed paramilitary group that is performing an ethnic cleansing raid on a passenger train. Buzov however, is not the character the story initially posits as our protagonist. That instead is a man who promises a Muslim passenger they’ll protect them before falling silent in the face of evil. The fake out is effective on a reconsideration of a story that serves as a reminder of the bravery required to stand for what’s right.
TJ O’Grady’s Irish film “Room Taken” tells a heartwarming story about a Yoruba man who secretly moves into the upstairs attic of a blind widow’s home. After the man performs several helpful deeds around the house, the woman forms an attachment to his unseen presence. Despite the two never properly acknowledging each other throughout the film, you can feel the love they hold for each other just through the simple actions they’ve done for each other.
Finally, “Jane Austen’s Period Drama” by the American directors Julia Aks and Steve Pinder is a hysterical satire of 19th century English period dramas (noted by the director’s themselves before the film, since they are not English, you cannot get mad at them). Miss Estrogenia argues with her sisters Vagianna and Labinia about how to tell her hopeful suitor, the very wealthy Mr. Dickley about the origins of blood on her white dress. The film is a delight from start to finish, and a very strong end to the 2024 finalists.
At the end of the festival, you’ll find yourself only disappointed in having to select only one of the films and only one of a preselected six actors to cast your vote for as the best of 2024. Room Taken won for the 2024 Manhattan Shorts Festival.
