The International Fest of Cinema and Technology is a world tour of cinema designed to give exposure to independent films that might not otherwise get much attention from the public eye. Naturally there’s a stop in Seattle since we all love our movies so much here. IFCT takes place in Seattle this weekend, July 5 and 6, at Northwest Film Forum.

This is the 7th year of the ICFT; this year they’re showing a series of shorts programs. Just as short stories can often be more challenging to write than full-length novels, short films can sometimes be more challenging to produce that feature-length films. Having a lot of story to tell in a limited amount of time forces shorts filmmakers to be exceptionally creative in their use of resources both on and off the camera and the results are often amazing.

There are eight screening segments going on during the two days of the festival. Saturday’s segments include Experimental Films, Documentary Showcase, Films about Obsession and Love, and Variety. Sunday’s screenings include Young Actors Showcase, Animated Shorts, Focus on Romantic Stories, and Science Fiction showcase. Each segment offers up a number of great short films on its topic. Among the films are a documentary about bullfighting, a film about a long-distance relationship filmed through Skype and a webcam, and a sci-fi film about travel to an unknown underwater world. The films comes from all over the world, including the US, the UK, Canada, Portugal, Brazil, and more.

Check the IFCT website [site] for the schedule; tickets through their site, Brown Paper Tickets or at the door.