Nickelodeon to host Manhattan Short festival
The Nickelodeon theater will participate in an international film festival Monday night, but don’t expect any traffic jams or downtown debauchery as the festival will take place in the form of a two-hour screening of short films.
At 5:30 p.m. Monday, The Manhattan Short festival will get underway. Claiming to be “The World’s First Global Film Festival,” The Manhattan Short screens in more than 250 cinemas across five continents from Sept. 26 to Oct. 5, but the Nickelodeon will be hosting Monday night and Monday night only.
The audience will watch the assortment of films and cast a ballot on the best film of the night. The festival claims to have had 589 submissions this year, and they’ve narrowed it down to 10 finalists for the actual screenings. The ballots will be sent back to the festival and compiled before the winner is announced.
“It’s something we’ve been doing for a few years,” said Kristin Morris, marketing manager of the Nickelodeon. “The people from the festival reached out to us and asked us if we want to be a part of it. We like to try and incorporate as much original programming that we can do that you won’t be able to do at a normal movie theater.”
Monday may seem the least likely of days to host an international festival, but the early part of the week is when the Nickelodeon is more likely to do quirkier events.
“Any special screenings that we want to do during the week that aren’t late night screenings, we have to do on Mondays and Tuesdays because of our agreements to our distributor,” Morris said. “We’re also showing 'The Trip To Italy' this week. We can’t cut a Thursday or a Friday screening. We’re only able to replace screenings on Mondays and Tuesdays.”
But don’t think that the beginning-of-the-week grogginess will hurt the Manhattan Short’s revelry. Rather, the Nickelodeon will rely on its base of loyal film lovers in addition to any new faces that make their way out to the theatre tonight. Eventually, the film will be able to move such an event to the weekend as the theater continues to grow.
“We’ve been doing the festival for a little while, and there’s a dedicated group of people who really like to come to the screenings like that,” Morris said. “Until we get our second screen built, we still are so limited to what we can do and when we can do things. When we have our second screen we’ll be able to have more ideal screening times for things like that.”
With the second screen still in the works, Morris made it clear that the Manhattan Short will not be for a bourgeois group of film connoisseurs. Instead, all hopeful viewers can come and see the short films with fresh eyes as many of the staff will be doing just the same.
“We’ve checked the films to make sure they’ve played well but it’s going to be new to everybody,” Morris said. “Anybody can go.”