Paris welcomes mass mobile movies festival

The Pocket Films Festival will screen mobile-shot movies from across the world

Anyone popping over to Paris this weekend could enjoy a visit to the Pompidou Centre - and find themselves making mobile phone movies as part of the Pocket Films Festival.

The 3rd Edition of the Pocket Films Festival begins on Friday June 8 and runs until Sunday 10. The aim of the festival is to "explore and stimulate audio-visual creative possibilities" offered by cameraphones.

This year's programme will include screenings of numerous mobile-generated movies, and other audio-visual mobile projects from all over the world. Some 100 films will be shown over the weekend, ranging from short fiction to full-length documentaries. There's also a high-profile international competition for short and medium length movies. And phone movies made to be screened specifically on mobile devices will be on display too.

In addition to showing off movies, the festival runs a series of workshops and debates, including a practical filming and editing workshop run by professionals for the public. Debates and roundtable discussions explore issues such as the social impact of mobile phones, artistic possibilities of cameraphones, plus interaction with new media. It's not exactly happy slapping, that's for sure.

The festival was established in 2005 by the Forum des Images , and has since spawned other Pocket Films Festivals across the globe. So if you're Paris bound, check out the Festival website .