Roseanne Liang’s Sundance-premiered short Do No Harm is named in the top ten films selected by Manhattan Short, automatically qualifying for Academy consideration. The films were selected from a record 1615 submissions.
Liang’s short was supported under the NZFC’s Premiere Shorts scheme, and tells the back-story of a character from Liang’s in development feature Black Lotus. The lead role is played by Marsha Yuen (pictured, top), daughter of Hong Kong actress Cheng Pei-Pei (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Liang’s My Wedding & Other Secrets), for whom Liang wrote the role in Black Lotus.
Do No Harm took the Audience Award in the NZ’s Best programme at this year’s NZIFF.
The other finalist films for Manhattan Short hail from Georgia, Italy, Latvia, Spain, Switzerland, Syria, the UK and the USA. (One of the films is titled In A Nutshell, almost the same title as Liang’s feature doco which led to My Wedding.)
In addition to Manhattan Short’s Oscar-qualifying screenings in Los Angeles, the festival’s finalists will play some 250 towns and cities around the world. The only NZ screenings announced are at Alexandra’s Central Cinema on 7 and 8 October.
Next year’s submission deadline for Manhattan Short is 31 July.