It has become increasingly difficult to concentrate on films lately, that is, films that aren't a part of the Toronto International Film Festival which opens exactly a week today. During that time period, This Week in Film will take a hiatus, but there will be more than enough coverage to keep cinephiles informed and aware of everything taking place at the festival. For this week however? We get to sift through the cast-offs in terms of summer releases, mixed with some excellent long weekend programming by our hard working alternative cinemas.

If you made it out to a film at the Bloor Cinema last summer, there's a good chance you caught an episode of the 'Popcorn Trilogy'.

A throwback to the pre-show serials of the 1940's, these short films follow the sex lives of Nigel, Peter and Joey; employees at a second-run cinema. Russ Meyer-esque in spirit, they're rife with beautiful women, double entendres and dirty miracles.

Canadian animation is renowned across the world, and the National Film Board is hosting two animation nights to prove it.

I'm not exaggerating: I've met filmmakers from around the world who have been in awe of the amazing quality of animated shorts that come from our country, and the amount of Academy Award nominations for Canadian animated shorts in the past decade speaks volumes about the recognition they are receiving outside the country.

Sadly, not many people inside Canada have a chance to see the gems that are being produced local filmmakers. The NFB Mediatheque is solving that problem by hosting animation nights tonight and on Thursday to showcase award-winning Canadian animation from the past few years.

Filmport Studios officially opened for business today and throngs of Toronto media made their way to the Port Lands to usher in a new era for Toronto film and TV productions. It was the closest I've seen recently to what some might describe as media mayhem - where all of Toronto's print, radio, TV and online outlets trip over each other to chase the same story.

The Toronto Urban Film Festival (TUFF) has announced 77 finalists for the film festival that will take place on TTC screens in September. Overall, just under a third of the more than 240 videos submitted to the festival made the cut.

While not all of the one-minute-long videos are yet available for viewing, a bunch of them have been uploaded to a TUFF YouTube Channel. I have embedded one of my favourite ones below (although a bit creepy):



And no need to turn up/down the volume. All videos are silent as there's no audio on the TTC screens.

This week in film definitely runs the gamut in terms of variety and diversity. We've got an independent Aboriginal-Canadian feature film, shot in 17 days and for a shoestring budget of $25,000, but we also have a documentary about the seedy underbelly of Bollywood, an action-packed screening with some mean green turtles, a romantic romp about lovers in a tumultuous time and...Spaceballs.