One World, One Week, One Festival--You Be the Judge! And judge we shall this Wednesday at 6:30 PM as Enzian joins over 100 cinemas across Europe, North, South and Central America in screening an outstanding international collection of shorts under the moniker, "The 10th Annual Manhattan Short Film Festival." 12 finalists have been selected for the program from 456 entries from 33 countries, and what's even more exciting is that only one of them has previously screened at Enzian--Craig Rosenthal's THE TRAINEE from Singapore, which was a hit in this year's International Showcase in the 2007 Florida Film Festival. Audience members will be asked to vote for their favorite, and the winner is to be announced on Sunday, September 30 in Union Square Park in NYC.

The highly acclaimed lineup includes: Sonja Jasansky's LINES (USA); Susan Jacobson and Eric Boden's ONE HUNDRETH OF A SECOND (UK); Florian Ross' CLOONEY (Germany); Tom Harper's CHERRIES (UK); John Raskin's I MET THE WALRUS (Canada); Shefy Malek's BORIS'S COMPLETE BOOK OF RULES (Israel); Hugo Sanz' THE PRESTIDIGITADOR (Spain); Simon Ellis' SOFT (UK); the aforementioned THE TRAINEE; Diego Quemeda-Diez' I WANT TO BE A PILOT (Kenya); Rachel Turk's FEELING LONELY (Australia), and Sam Donovan's KING PONCE (UK). Many of these got 4-star reviews from Orlando Sentinel Movie Critic Roger Moore in last Friday's Calendar section, with Ugo Sanz' Spanish gem, THE PRESTIDIGITADOR, even earning a 5-star rave.

That's 12 films from 9 different countries--nearly 2 hours of extraordinary short works from all over the world for a $9 ticket! And not only is Enzian and Orlando one of only 3 Florida venues to host the event this week (Key West and Jacksonville being the others), but ticket buyers get to participate and have a say in the Audience Award winner as well. Sounds like another special evening at Enzian--I'm sure all of you FFF fans that flock to the shorts programs won't want to miss it!

--Matthew