I love France. Great cheese, the French new wave, Francois Ozon, badass Luc Besson and now a playful idea of a night of the shortest of movies on the shortest of nights.

Yes, winter solstice – the dark, the damp and the cold lit with the silver glow of the projector. Thank you Lumière brothers, the very first short filmmakers, yet another reason to love France. And thank you Telefilm for pulling together a program of Canadian short films that will screen in theatres across Canada on Dec. 21 and locally at The Vic Theatre. All I can say is ooh la la.

Some changes are in the wind as the Victoria Film Festival momentum builds.

There is a new documentary programmer – Fraser McColl embraced TIFF with gusto and survived. Also, a new partnership with the Reel Asian Film Festival presenting South Asian films (India, Pakistan, Afghanistan). And last but certainly not least, Murray Jurak from the Dreamspeakers Festival will be seeking Aboriginal films that will resonate with our community.