Film lovers in Sullivan County will once again have a chance to watch and judge short films from around the world as the Manhattan Short Film Festival returns this fall with four free local screenings.

This year’s festival features 10 short films from 10 different countries, with audiences around the world voting for their favorites. In Sullivan County, screenings will be held at SUNY Sullivan and the Fallsburg Library.

The SUNY Sullivan screenings will take place in the college’s student union on Thursday, Sept. 24, at 6 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 3, at 7 p.m.

The Fallsburg Library will host two additional matinee screenings on Sept. 24 and Oct. 1, both at 4:30 p.m. The library is handicap accessible and has parking available in front of the building. SUNY Sullivan is also handicap accessible.

The festival has been presented in the Town of Fallsburg since 2020, but this is the first year the main evening screenings are moving to SUNY Sullivan.

Barb Schmidt, who helped bring the festival to Sullivan County, said she hopes the new location will introduce more SUNY Sullivan students to international short films and perhaps inspire some to create films of their own.

“I have this little dream in the back of my mind that one day a SUNY Sullivan student will see the film festival, get inspired, make their own little short, and enter it,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt first discovered Manhattan Short while attending screenings at Orange County Community College. When she realized there was no Sullivan County location, she decided to bring the festival here.

The Town of Fallsburg became a sponsor, allowing the local screenings to remain free.

“To me, it’s important that everybody has access to the cultural things that make life beautiful,” Schmidt said.

Manhattan Short founding director Nicholas Mason said the festival began as an outdoor event in Union Square Park in New York City, where his goal was to give audiences what he described as a kind of cinematic trip around the world in a single evening.

The festival took on new significance in 2001, when a scheduled screening was held in Union Square less than two weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks. By then, the park had become a gathering and memorial space, as well as a center for international media covering the aftermath of the attacks.

Coverage from international news organizations helped draw attention to the films and filmmakers, Mason said, contributing to the festival’s growth around the world.

Today, Manhattan Short is screened in hundreds of communities internationally, with audiences at each venue receiving ballots and voting for the film they believe should win.

Mason said one of the festival’s strengths is that the films often reflect events, moods and experiences unfolding around the world.

This year marks the first time in the festival’s history that all 10 selected films come from 10 different countries.

The films also have the potential to reach audiences far beyond the festival circuit.

Mason said that two years ago, five of Manhattan Short’s 10 selections were shortlisted for Academy Awards, three received Oscar nominations and one went on to win.

He said he believes some of this year’s selections could also receive Academy Awards attention, although he declined to single out individual films before audiences have a chance to see them.

For Mason, the festival is also about preserving the communal experience of watching movies together at a time when more people consume films at home through streaming services.

“The films that stayed with me were those that I saw in a forum,” Mason said, adding that watching a film with a crowd can give the experience greater emotional power.

Schmidt said she sees that shared experience each year when audiences laugh, gasp or react together at the same moments.

She said many attendees have also become regulars, returning year after year since Sullivan County began hosting the festival in 2020.

Mason said community-based venues such as libraries have become especially important to Manhattan Short’s growth in the United States.

Rather than focusing on traditional multiplexes, Mason said he looks for what he calls the “community heartbeat” of a town — places where people naturally gather.

In many communities, he said, that place is the public library.

“Libraries aren’t about books,” Mason recalled one librarian telling him. “They’re community centers.”

Mason said his long-term goal is to eventually have Manhattan Short playing simultaneously in about 200 libraries across the United States.

Locally, audiences will not simply be spectators. After watching the films, they will be able to cast ballots for their favorites, with votes from Sullivan County counted alongside votes from viewers around the world.

The worldwide winner is scheduled to be announced Oct. 5 on the Manhattan Short website.

The Sullivan County screenings are free and funded by the Town of Fallsburg.

For more information about the festival and this year’s films, visit manhattanshort.com.