Short Films Shine at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival

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For the past two years the Toronto After Dark Film Festival has wowed audiences with sci-fi, action and horror films by directors such as Uwe Boll, Lloyd Kaufman and The Pang Bros, and with the strong opening night film yesterday of Let The Right One In, and Repo! The Genetic Opera tonight, it seems there is no end to the buzz circling the festival.

While we've already previewed some of the more interesting features that one can see this year, Toronto After Dark still has its share of hidden gems to be discovered; short films that are amongst the festivals most unique and best kept secrets.

While Toronto After Dark is more of an international celebration of horror/martial arts/gore/zombie films, the Canada After Dark program is an effort co-presented with the Worldwide Short Film Festival to promote Canadian films. This is done by insuring that before every feature film in the festival, a Canadian short film will be screened. While the shorts range from 2 to 18 minutes long, the genres are just as diverse as the feature films themselves.

Opening for the highly anticipated feature Tokyo Gore Police, the short film Bum Rush was a huge winner at the Spring 2008 Toronto Film Challenge and is just a taste of some of the more comedic fare that will be opening before your favourite After Dark feature films.

But the shorts don't stop there, on Sunday at 3:45, Shorts After Dark is a full program dedicated to international short films from countries such as the USA, Germany, Spain and more. Unfortunately, it is screening at the same time as the Zombie Walk, but if you are not a fan of chasing a slow-moving zombie hoard, or just plain camera shy, this program cannot be beat.

For a sneak peek at what this program will contain, here is an (unsubtitled) clip from the Spanish film Martians Go Home: The Revenge of Sara Clockwork, a steampunk/80's revivalist film about, well, I'm not quite sure but I can't wait to see it with subtitles and find out.