Summertime Shorts with Aurora Picture Show

Summer days may be long but shorts are where it's at — film shorts, that is. For more than 10 years Houston's Aurora Picture Show has hosted a contest for Extremely Short Films (3 minutes and under) from across the globe. This year's Extremely Shorts festival coincides with Aurora's 10th birthday, and to celebrate, the avant garde theater is hosting a weekend of festivities, including a free retrospective tonight at Discovery Green.

The Best of Extremely Shorts: Audience Choice begins at 8 p.m. tonight at Discovery Green. Twenty-three of the most crowd-pleasing short titles (chosen from more than 250 works submitted over the past 10 years) will be shown picnic-style at Houston's newest urban park. The 23 shorts were chosen by Aurora fans in an online poll. Zydeco Dots will play first and the screening will begin at 8:45 p.m. Don't forget your picnic blanket!

Saturday and Sunday the 11th annual juried short films festival will begin. Juror Ed Halter, a film critic for The Village Voice, will be at the screenings which Aurora calls it's most popular event of the year. Tickets for this event and are $6.60 for nonmembers, free for members, available via Aurora's website. There are a few different screenings: Saturday at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m.

Following Sunday's screening is the Aurora 10th Annual Birthday Picnic, featuring karaoke, beer from St. Arnold's, food from T'afia and birthday cake from Cakes by Macauley. Tickets are $10 for members and $12 for non-members and are also available on Aurora's website.

Photo: Flickr user jeffbalke