Small is Beautiful

The prestigious Manhattan Short Film Festival ( MSFF) returns to Mumbai after its successful foray into the city last year. This time,filmmaker S Ramachandran has tied up with festival director Anil Sadarangani to bring the MSFF which,according to Founding Festival Director Nicholas Mason,shares a special relationship with India. “The winner of the 2004 festival,Ashvin Kumar’s Little Terrorist,went on to earn a nomination at the Oscars in the Best Short Film category,” he points out. According to Kumar,the festival is an important platform for makers of short films. “The short film genre is a great way for filmmakers to experiment without worrying about the factors that come into play when making a feature film. You learn how to tell a story economically and within a time limit. I encourage people to participate in it.”

The festival will take place in over 200 cinemas in 200 cities across six continents,including Asia,North and South America,Europe,Australia and Africa,during the week of September 25 to October 2,2011. Audiences across the globe will watch 10 finalist films of the festival and vote for the winner. The submissions for the festival are to be sent to New York by the end of this month.