On March 1, New York City hosted the III edition of the Manhattan International Film Festival Manhattan International Film FestivalThis year's festival, organized by the World Youth Alliance, was looking for short films produced by young people from all over the world that promote human dignity and show human relationships in an original way.

With 130 entries submitted, only 13 were finalists, including the animated short film Dummies, project for the end of Degree made by Audiovisual Communication students who graduated in 2013: Daniel P. Álava, María Sánchez, Javier Hidalgo, Borja Díaz de Bustamante and David Alén, supervised by professors Carlos Bernar and Guillermo Eiroa.

Daniel, director, and Maria, producer, attended the festival on behalf of Dummies. On Friday, February 28, a meeting was held at the WYA headquarters with actors Kevin Collins and Dana Ivey, Broadway veteran and known for a multitude of films, including The Color Purple.

The following day, all the finalist works were screened at the Sohotel Art Space, with the presence of their creators from countries such as the Philippines, Armenia, Romania, Croatia, Brazil and Spain. After the screenings, the well-known critic and professor at Columbia University, Giovanni Morricone (son of the famous composer Ennio Morricone), analyzed the works in an exercise in film criticism. Afterwards, the WYA Orchestra, composed of students from the Juilliard School, performed some classical music to liven up the festival.

Finally, the submission awards went to What We do, by Maja Subaric (Croatia), Laum, by Xandrino Mangunay (Philippines) and El Pianista Inolvidable, by Josep Antoni Ribas (Spain). Dummies was awarded an Honoraryaccredited specialization along with work for Tenebris, by Ion Sova (Romania). All these award-winning works will be screened in a special way at the United Nations headquarters on April 2.

The experience, says Daniel P. Álava (director de Dummies), has been "incredible, traveling to New York has been like being immersed in a movie. I have met very talented people, and I have learned about other cultures thanks to their short films. I think the opportunity offered by this festival subject is unique. It gives you the option to show your humble work in front of people from all over the world, more so now with the special accredited specialization and its subsequent screening at the United Nations. I never imagined that after one year so many good things would be happening with this project that was born in Fcom. I don't even want to imagine the results if instead of distributing it myself, we had commissioned it to a large distributor. It is worth mentioning that out of the five awarded works, three are animation films, two of them Spanish. Many good things are happening with Dummies, I can only thank my colleagues and especially Carlos Bernar".

María Sánchez also emphasizes that the accredited specialization in this international festival is "a clear sample of the efforts that are made in each area to change the world little by little through cinema. The short films selected transmit, from very different points of view and forms, a series of values that many of us want to recover and I am happy to be part of that effort. Meeting so many people of different nationalities makes me see that we all have in the end the same concerns, and the universality of the stories is core topic to be able to convey a message."

Dummies continues to reap success. In addition to being selected at the Children's International Film Festival (Dubai), Festival d'Animation de Paris Croq'Anime (France) or the Riverside Short Film & Video Festival (Missouri, USA), it was selected for the official competition at the Malaga Film Festival.