Short Film Day event

The Yorkton Film Festival (YFF) will serve as Saskatchewan's only venue for this year's Shortest Day Short Film Celebration.

The short film celebration, which has been a big hit in France since 2011 and has subsequently spread to 12 other countries, will have its inaugural editions in Quebec and across Canada on Dec, 21, 2013. The idea of holding the event on the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, stemmed from a desire to promote short films to local audiences by encouraging public screenings in a variety of venues.

"Part of the festival's mandate is to increase awareness and viewership of Canadian short films; as such, we felt this was a great chance to showcase some of the short films that have been submitted to our festival over the course of our history," said Randy Goulden, Executive Director of the Yorkton Film Festival.

Nationally the day is also being recognized as important.

"Short films are a special and very valid film genre. Many acclaimed filmmakers and emerging talents choose to work in this format, which deserves to be discovered by an ever-growing audience. The Shortest Day Short Film Celebration is an original initiative that will expose Canadians to the best short films, in all their richness and diversity." said Tom Perlmutter, Government Film Commissioner and NFB Chairperson in a release.

"Supporting the promotion of short films is part of Telefilm Canada's mandate, and we are delighted to join with the SODEC and the NFB to launch the Canadian edition of The Shortest Day Short Film Celebration, which we hope will soon become a large-scale annual tradition," said Michel Roy, Chair of Telefilm Canada in the same release.

Yorkton's venue for the Shortest Day of Film will be the Yorkton Public Library. Family friendly films will be shown, free of charge, on Saturday, Dec. 21 at 1:00 pm.