The New York City Short Film Festival (NYC Shorts) is an international competitive short film festival created by filmmakers and dedicated to the short form. In 2024, NYC Shorts will celebrate its 20th annual edition. The festival screenings will once again take place at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre at Symphony Space, a storied arts and film venue in Manhattan.
NYC SHORTS is a competitive festival with winners in each of seven categories: Drama Short, Comedy Short, Documentary Short, Animation Short, LGBT Short, Foreign Language Short and Student Short. The audience votes for its favorite film in each screening. In our 20 year history, we have screened shorts from all over the world and had filmmakers in attendance from the US, UK, Australia, Germany, Mexico, South Africa, Israel, Canada, Italy and more. Attending filmmakers participate in a post-screening Q&A and network with other filmmakers and industry guests at our after-party. Our Official Selections have gone on to screen at Sundance, Berlin, Palm Springs Shorts, Clermont-Ferrand and many other important film festivals. In 2007, the animation short THE DANISH POET won the Academy Award for Animation Short after it had its New York premiere at our festival in 2006. In 2018, our Best Foreign Language Short MAY DAY had its US Premiere at our festival and was later short-listed (top ten) for the 2019 Academy Award. MADRE, our 2018 Best Drama Short was nominated for the 2019 Academy Award in the live-action category. Our 2021 Audience Award winner AFFAIRS OF THE ART was nominated for the 2022 Academy Award for Animation Short.
Best of Fest Award
Best Drama Short
Best Comedy Short
Best Documentary Short
Best LGBT Short
Best Student Short
Best Foreign Language Short
Best Animation Short
Audience Choice Award