ABOUT US

The Manhattan Film Festival is one of the most innovative film festivals of the 21st Century. Founded by two independent filmmakers, we are the first to offer filmmakers their preferred selection process: participation in our signature Web-Based Competition or selection by our festival’s programming team. Our innovation has created new ways for filmmakers and audiences to connect both physically and virtually. Over the last year our festival experienced rapid growth in large part because we have utilized cross promotion between local businesses in the community. While we are a very small organization, we are working to build something very large.

MISSION

The Manhattan Film Festival is dedicated to bringing filmmakers and audiences together in ways never before thought possible. Utilizing the ever-expanding digital environment, our goal is to help filmmakers pursue a career out of filmmaking. In doing so we ensure the unique voices and visions not associated with mainstream fare will continue to be seen and heard.   

DIRECTORS

Philip J. Nelson

Philip J. Nelson is president and founder of the Manhattan Film Festival. While only a Junior in high school, Nelson was honored by Congressman Jim Ramstad as one of the top five young entrepreneurs of Minnesota. After graduating high school he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin River Falls. In 2001, alongside childhood friend Jose Ruiz Jr., he completed his first feature film Promise of a New Day. It was through that experience he learned first hand how hard it was to find an independent film an audience. Soon after he graduated he took a position as a mortgage officer. Within a year he became the firms mortgage broker and full partner within the company. As the years went by Nelson was drawn back to the film industry. He thought about producing another film, but remembered the barriers he had faced previously. Instead, he reconnected with Ruiz and created the Independent Features Film Festival, the first film festival in which film selection is done online via a web-based competition. Nelson resigned from his position in January of 2007 to focus on building a festival that would level the playing field for independent filmmakers. In April of 2008, Nelson relocated his family to New York City to continue his work building the festival. After many trials and tribulations his vision became the most innovative festival of the 21st Century and as of January, 2010 legally known as the Manhattan Film Festival.



Jose Ruiz Jr.

Born March 10th 1980- Jose Ruiz, Jr. is the Vice President and Co-Founder of the Manhattan Film Festival and the Film Heals Foundation. His love for the arts began when he started acting at age 12 in local theater productions in Minnesota. He continued his love for acting by being involved in his high school theater productions. Fresh out of High School, he partnered with childhood friend Philip J. Nelson to complete their first feature length film. Ruiz gave up a promising Division II football career to pursue a career in Real Estate and concentrate on family life over the next few years. After a series of tragic events that changed his life forever, at age 26 Ruiz decided to get back into acting and landed some local and National commercials. It was after these events that Ruiz decided to reconnect with Nelson, bringing their vision of the Manhattan Film Festival and Film Heals into a reality.

Nika Jones

Nika Jones Nika brings 10 years of experience of developing and directing solutions in the IT field. Starting his career by gainning experiance in multi-media, Nika brings a mixture of graphic design, software engineering, database management and network infastructure, providing compelling insight to both front-end and back-end systems. Prior to working with the Manhattan Film Festival, Nika was the lead developer of a silicon valley startup. Nika has also worked on the UI/UX team at USAirway's and developed software solutions for the Minneapolis Public School system. In his spare time, Nika enjoys, "a good foot race," cooking, and just being generally social.


Jonathan Rahn

Jonathan Rahn has a strong background in customer service and pleasing people. Jonathan has a unique level of customer service experience serving guests and clients. A hotel background as an assistant associate has allowed Jonathan to work with pleasing some of the hardest guests. Familiar with all of the hotels and styles across the United States has allowed Jonathan to be very knowledgeable when giving out information on hotels. Jonathan also has more than 7 years in real estate working with first time home buyers all the way to building and selling upper bracket homes for some of the most challenging clientele. Jonathan aims to please in everything that he does.