OmeU
SMALL TALK
MARY IS MISSING
CANDY BAR
VULTURES
LIFE GOES ON
HAI DAVAI
PICKUP
NORHEIMSUND
WHEN THE SEA WAS CALM
NEVER GIVE UPThe 29th Annual Manhattan Short Film Festival will take place worldwide from September, 25 – October, 4, 2026, with Vienna’s screening at the Votiv Kino on October 2, 2026. Ten finalists from ten countries compete for the Audience Awards for Best Film and Best Actor, with all selections automatically qualifying for the Oscars.
SMALL TALK (USA) | Eduardo Moral | 8:40 mins
Synopsis: In a neon-drenched future where AI has consumed nearly every profession, a weary cab driver preserves the last traces of humanity the only way he can… through small talk
MARY IS MISSING (IRL) | Aisling Byrne | 22 mins
Synopsis: When care worker Mary vanishes without a trace, Detective Foley arrives at the Yellow Tree Day Service, and investigations begin. As reports from the eyewitnesses become more and more confounding, we are asked to explore the reliability of truth, the strangeness of fiction, and the people we choose to believe
CANDY BAR (AUS) | Nash Edgerton | 6:19 mins
Synopsis: A young girl thinks a man in the candy bar line looks like her dad.
VULTURES (RSA) | Dian Weys | 15 mins
Synopsis: In the volatile moments after a car crash, before the authorities arrive, a hot-headed yet desperate tow truck driver fiercely protects his tow. But the situation quickly spirals out of his control.
LIFE GOES ON (UK) | Kat Butterfield & Daniel Audritt | 19 mins
Synopsis: Bill is in end-of-life care waiting for the sweet release of death – but unfortunately for him, he’s stuck in an infinite time loop, causing the day to restart the second his heart stops…
HAI DAVAI (MDA) | Vlad Gradescu | 16 mins
Synopsis: On the cusp of leaving her rural Moldovan village for a new life abroad, Nina is stopped, quite literally, by an old superstition: a black cat crosses the road. Citing bad luck, her worried grandmother refuses to let her pass.
PICKUP (RU) | Viktoriia Lapushkina | 3 mins
Synopsis: At a pickup workshop, every girl gets a mission — flirt, charm, and win. For Di, the shyest one in the room, the task is simple: ask a guy to buy her coffee. Passing by her more confident “competitors,” she ends up on a rooftop smoking area, where she meets Alex — a man about to end his life.
NORHEIMSUND (CUB) | Ana. A. Alpizar | 12 mins
Synopsis: A girl’s long-distance romance with an older Norwegian man promises to pull her and her mother from their austere life in Cuba, but her dreams are shaken when she realizes he isn’t as idyllic as he seems.
WHEN THE SEA WAS CALMN (GEO) |Mamuka Tkeshelashvili | 18 mins
Synopsis: Two old friends on a fishing trip encounter drifting refugees in distress at sea.
NEVER GIVE UP! (HUN / MEX) | Tamás Yvan Topolánszky | 20 mins
Synopsis: Alone in the desert, a young boy attempts to cross the U.S.—Mexico border guided only by his mother’s final words: never give up. An unexpected source of hope leads him toward a twist that redefines survival.