Viva la French Film!

French directors François Truffaut (Day for Night) and Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie) first cut their cinematic teeth on short films. Who is to say the next great Gallic filmmaker will not make an appearance at the 2008 ShortFest? This year's French submissions created such a stir that the festival programmers chose to highlight the country's 30 best short films, second in representation only to the United States.

The idea of French cinema may produce images of café romances, but recent offerings suggest that Cupid has taken a vacation. That does not stop mere mortals from seeking love on their own.

Actress Virginie Peignien writes and directs her first short film, "Just One Hour" ("Juste Une Heure"). When a woman approaches a stranger and suggests they have anonymous sex, the proposition is intriguing. Some women lack such daring, for example the bookish beauty in the world premiere of "Original Sin" ("Péché Originel") and the desperate wallflower in Héléne Guétary's "Animal Bloom" ("Animal Singulier") who becomes a guinea pig for a hormone injection that drives men crazy. Man is more civilized but has yet to evolve from swinging amongst the branches in Vincent Vizioz's North American premiere, "Boy in the Tree" ("La Pomme de Newton"), as the titular boy becomes ruffled by the presence of a girl with her feet firmly on the ground.

A young man cannot escape his personal oddity when it is attached squarely to his face. In Valentin Potier's "Tony Zear" ("Tony Zoreil"), Tony lives in a world too loud and judgmental for his massive auditory organs (Tony's ear, get it?), and love is a hard sell. In contrast, romance barely utters a whisper in Céline Novel's delightful, subtle comedy, "Ocean Boulevard" ("Boulevard L’Océan"). Two could-be lovers on holiday just miss each other when distracted by hobbies, but sparks ignite a careful flame.

In darker tales, love earns an expiration date. In Ronan Moucheboeuf's "Orange Juice," a wife worries when her premonitory dreams suggest that her husband will decide the beverage is not just for breakfast. With a title like "The Gravedigger" ("Le Fossoyeur"), Sylvie Benavides' short suggests an ominous end for the girlfriend of the character's soon-to-be ex-wife.

Such diverse topics find a welcome home in short films as feature films attempt to stretch French cinema and Hollywood boundaries.

"Films take an important place in France, and we are lucky that lots of producers, film companies, distributors and associations are working hard to keep it that way even if it is getting more difficult with the surge of American blockbusters," said Benavides. "I am very happy to see that these efforts are rewarded, in particular at the Cannes Film Festival with the Palme d'Or which went to a French film this year."

Other directors do not wholly share this sentiment. "Good French feature films are very rare nowadays," said Benoît Ameil. "This situation is at the same time scarring and motivating. For my short, 'A Juicy Turkey' ('La Dinde Marinée'), it helped me. There is a cinematographic area in short filmmaking that almost doesn't exist in feature films."

Expanding upon such limitations, director Marc Alepee said, "All the stories I want to tell are fantasy stories, so the problem I have with French cinema is that it does not really produce genre movies. For producers in France, fantasy is not a serious way to tell stories and express ideas. However, I think that fantasy films are the perfect way to express my point of view on the world we are living in."

Such fantasy films represent some of the more visually creative shorts of the festival. Award-winning Lorenzo Recio directs the disquieting film "Lisa" in its North American premiere, suggesting a world where Alice scurried down the wrong rabbit hole. In Alepee's film, "In the Rope" ("Dans La Corde"), a man finds himself alone on a cliff with only a rope leading to a sliver of hope. Solitude remains the theme in "Skhizein," Jérémy Clapin's 3D animated North American premiere. After colliding with a meteorite, Henry is beside himself -- exactly 91 centimeters beside himself. In a busy world, he becomes lost in the shifted shuffle.

So take note. Palm Springs may be the stepping stone for future grands directeurs.