Mattoon Public Library Hosting International Manhattan Short Film Festival

For Immediate Release

MATTOON – The Mattoon Public Library is again hosting the international Manhattan Short film festival with five different showings on three dates.

The festival, in its 25th year, features 10 short films selected from 870 submissions from 70 countries. The Mattoon library is one of about 400 venues across six continents showing the films this year.

The showings are at 6 p.m. on Sept. 22, 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. 27 and 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. Oct. 2 in the Community Room in the library’s lower basement. The screenings are free and last about 2.5 hours. Audience members are invited to vote on the best film and best actor awards. By virtue of their selection by Manhattan Short, each short film is automatically Oscar-qualified.

The ten Manhattan Short finalists hail from eight countries with films from Scotland, Czech & Slovakia, Spain, Australia, Finland and Lebanon, alongside two films each from France and USA.

If the 10 short films presented by Manhattan Short have one common theme, it’s how people deal with adversity in its various forms. Short films like The Blanket, Freedom Swimmer and Freefall explore how individuals react when caught up in large-scale, traumatic events. Adversity on a more personal level is the focus of short films like Warsha, Fetish, The Big Green and Love, Dad. Sometimes, the response is laughable, as in Save the Bees and The Treatment, especially when even the universe seems to be against you, as in Don vs Lightning. How these stories are told is varied as the directors that tell them.

In short, there is plenty of drama and comedy interwoven with surprisingly effective newer ways of storytelling like animated documentaries. Manhattan Short also is a showcase for rising-star actors and recognizable favorites like Disney stalwart Peton List and Scotsman Peter Mullan, himself a prize-winning director, appearing in unexpected, talent-stretching roles.

All final ten short films become Oscar-qualified, meaning they will be automatically eligible for an Academy Award nomination by screening for a week at the Arena CineLounge in Hollywood in the county of Los Angeles from Sep 23 to Sept 29.