Best thing about short films?  If they suck, they're over soon.  Heh.  Biased though I may be, however, I'm betting that particular scenario won't come up real often at the upcoming Worldwide Short Film Festival.

In the name of full disclosure I probably should say right up front that I programmed a handful of the programs at this year's event and the almighty lord and master here at the Sideshow has been doing the music video program for a few years now so we've obviously got a bit of a vested interest in things but I'm mighty happy with the stuff we managed to put together.

Here's a quick summary of the bits I had my fingers in.  Up first is a Thai Spotlight that features the first ever screening of a complete program of films commissioned last year to celebrate the King of Thailand's eightieth birthday.  Which, admittedly, doesn't sound all that exciting on the surface of things but there's nary a cake nor round of Happy Birthday to be found in any of these and pretty much everybody who matters in Thailand is involved.  Pen-Ek Ratanaruang (Last Life In The Universe) is a big fave of mine and he's in there, as is Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Tropical Malady), whose latest film was - ironically enough - going through the censorship wringer as he was making this one.  The big winner for me in this block, though, is Wisit Sasanatieng's (Tears of the Black Tiger), who turns in an absolute acid trip of a film based on old Hindu legends.

Up next, the first ever Canadian screenings of both Genius Party and Genius Party Beyond, a pair of anthology films from Japan's Studio 4C, who were the supervising studio behind The Animatrix and the upcoming Batman: Gotham Knight projects and are probably in the top two or three animation studios in the world today.  If you're a fan of Cowboy Bebop or Samurai Champloo you'll want to come see the first film, at least, since it includes new work from Shinichiro Watanabe who directed both of those shows along with the two best bits of The Animatrix.

I'm also to blame for the midnight screenings of horror flicks, Creepy and Freaky.  Zombies, creature features, crazy assed German kung-fu / scifi / horror hybrids ... we got it all in these two programs.  I love them all but if you were to make me pick favorites among my children I'd have to go with KINGZ  (the German film), and Bitten - a nasty little French piece with effects by the same outfit that did Frontiere(s) and Inside.<

Of the other stuff in the festival I'll be beaten if I don't point out that the music vid program includes a rare 3D screening of the latest from Bjork, the scifi program includes a HUGE favorite of mine, the kids' program features three new installments from Wallace And Gromit spin off Shaun the Sheep (yes, I'm a fan) while other programs are loaded up with new stuff from Michel Gondry's company, loads of celeb cameos and more.  There's enough good stuff in there that if you wanted to shake a stick at it you'd need a really big stick.

You can buy tickets now on the official website