08/10/2012 - The Manhatten Short Film Festival screens Norwegian director Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken's The Devil's Ballroom in more than 300 cities across six continents

Norwegian director Henrik Martin K Dahlsbakken's second short, The Devil's Ballroom, came in No 8 at the Manhattan Short Film Festival, which wrapped yesterday (October 7) – but within the past week it has been shown to more than 100,000 people over 300 cities across six continents.

The ten finalists in the Manhattan Short are distributed to venues in all 50 states of the USA, adding cinemas in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Audiences as far north as St Petersburg, Russia to as far south as Buenos Aires, Argentina, as far east as Kathmandu, Nepal and as far west as Perth and Australia decided the winner, which this year was Romanian director Tudor Giurgiu's Superman, Spiderman or Batman (from 19,549 votes).

Set in the early 1910s, with Svein Harry Schöttker Hauge, Barzorig Chinbayar and Narmandakh Erdenee in the leads, The Devil's Ballroom follows a fearless explorer on his way to the North Pole. Having buried his last remaining companion, and fighting snow-blindness and physical strain, he is forced by an unexpected encounter to choose between honour and fame in the history books or keeping his moral high ground.

Scripted and produced by Dahlsbakken for Northern Pictures, the 15-minute short has previously been honoured at two US festivals, The Palm Springs International Film Festival (Best Action Short-15 minutes and under) and Rhode Island International Film Festival (Best Director). It has also screened at the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund and the Sao Paolo International Short Film Festival in Brazil.