Fifty locals joined approximately 100,000 people across the globe in voting for this year’s winning film entry during the festivals stop in at Tenterfield on October 2.

“Rhino Full Throttle” by Schmitt topped the voting by around seven thousand votes with “Mend and Make Do” second and “The Bravest, The Boldest” third.

Tenterfield film-goers took a liking to the two English productions with “Mend and Make Do” and “On the Bridge” voted one and two with “Rhino Full Throttle” third.

Clear winner in the Best Actor category for Tenterfield was Sameerah Luqumaan-Harris in “The Bravest, The Boldest” with 21 votes which was confirmed by the overall results showing 38,256 votes.

It’s the seventh time the prestigious film festival has made its way to Tenterfield and the 17th incarnation of the annual film festival.

Tenterfield Cinema began screening the Manhattan Short Film Festival in 2007, skipping 2013, and was one of the first Australian cinemas to take it up.

Tenterfield Shire mayor Peter Petty, who attended the event for the first time, was very enthusiastic about Tenterfield’s involvement in the festival.

“Each film left you with a particular emotion, be it anticipation, suspense, happiness, empathy or sadness”, he said.

“It was very difficult to judge best film as they were all so wonderful. In the end I had to vote with my heart.”

A total of 79,383 ballots were submitted and counted at the Festival Headquarters in New York City.