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Online dating is a nerve-wracking premise at its core, but if you know the health dangers posed by sexual contact, the experience can become even scarier. That's the idea behind the web series The Dangers of Online Dating, a comedy from creator Brianne Nord-Stewart about a nurse who must overcome her fears (and her medical knowledge) in order to snag herself a man.

The woman at the center of The Dangers of Online Dating is Paula (Paula Burrows), whose buttoned-up attitude and preference for celibacy is informed by the sex-induced maladies she sees every day in her work at a Vancouver clinic. With a little help from her friends, she sets up an online dating profile and launches herself into a series of clumsy encounters. Those situations are made even more awkward by Paula's reserved attitude around the opposite sex -- and her penchant for daydreams.

While its premise is...

Female filmmakers in the sci-fi and fantasy genre will be celebrated with the first ever Etheria Film Festival, to be held in September 2012.

Etheria is the brainchild of film journalist Heidi Honeycutt and the Viscera Organisation, a not-for-profit group dedicated to increasing the visibility of female genre filmmakers.

Last month, the Viscera Film Festival Carpet Ceremony put the spotlight on up-and-coming women directors in the horror genre with a programme of new short films and a celebrity judging panel of industry veterans.

A Viscera spokeswoman said: "The Viscera Film Festival has been showcasing the best in emerging female horror film talent since 2007.

"But why stop with horror? There are talented women filmmakers across every genre. The Etheria Film Festival is the only film festival in the world that screens, exclusively, the best new short science fiction and fantasy films directed by women from around the globe."

Etheria is co-presented by...

Fans of short films living in Montreal, the event Prends ça court will be organized on June 18 at the Monument-National (1182 St-Laurent Boulevard). Obviously, expect to hear about 17 shorts and more. Moreover, these shorts were seen at Sundance, the Oscars ceremony and else where in the world.

* Les barbares, from Jean-Gabriel Périot (France).

* Sinna Mann, from Anita Killi (Norway).

* My Invisible Friend, from Pablo Larcuen (Spain).

* Trolls, from Brianne Nord-Stewart (Canada).

* ¿Donde Esta Kim Basinger?, from Édouard Déluc.

* The Ground Beneath, from Rene Hernandez (Australia).

* A Gentle Creature, from Marc James Roels (Belgium).

* Raymond a peut-être la rage, from Ramiro Bélanger (Canada).

* Old Fangs, from Adrien Merigeau (Ireland).

* Na Wewe, from Ivan Goldschmidt (Belgium).

* Chienne d'histoire, from Serge Avédikian (France).

* Love Patate, from Gilles Cuvelier (France).

* The New Tenants, from Joachim Back (Danemark).

* Glen Owen Dodds, from Frazer Bailey (Australia).

* Les sauvages, from Antoine Cuypers (Belgium).

* The Lost Thing, from Andrew Ruhemann...

The 28th annual Vancouver International Film Festival (Viff) will be held October 1-16, 2009. Founded in 1982, Viff's mandate is "...to encourage the understanding of other nations through the art of cinema, to foster the art of cinema, to facilitate the meeting in British Columbia of cinema professionals from around the world and to stimulate the motion picture industry in British Columbia and Canada..." Over 150,000 people are expected to attend 640 screenings of 360 films from 80 countries. Here is an up-to-date list of directors, confirmed to attend Viff 2009, along with their films : "1428" Du Haibin "1999" Lenin Sivam "65_RedRoses" Philip Lyall & Nimisha Mukerji "Adelaide" Liliana Greenfield-Sanders "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector" Vikram Jayanti "Ana & Arthur" Larry Young "The Anchorage" Anders Edström & Curtis Winter "Antoine" Laura Bari "Argippo Resurrected" Dan Krames "The Art of Drowning" Diego Maclean "At Home By Myself... With You" Kris Booth "At The Edge Of The World" Dan Stone...