Hurry up and get your shorts off ... to the Taos Shortz Film Festival, that is. (Heh, heh. Who doesn’t love a lame pun?) The third annual Taos Shortz Film Fest promises to showcase the hottest short films in the Southwest. This coming Sunday, Nov. 1, is the early bird deadline. Get your short film submission in by this weekend and you’ll only have to fork over a $17 entry fee. If you can’t get your work together by then, you have until Dec. 1. Programmers are looking for films between 3 and 28 minutes in the following categories: Comedy, Drama, Documentary, Animation and Experimental. For a complete list of rules, regulations and submission forms, log on to www.taosshortz.com. The festival is scheduled to take place Feb. 5 to 7, 2010.

Listen to enough sports radio and you’ll get the idea that professional sports aren’t mere recreational distractions. There’re not just regional pissing contests, either. For many adults, professional sports are a full-blown obsession. After all, would a truly sane person smear his body with purple and yellow paint and then stand, half-naked, in a Minneapolis football stadium in 13 degree weather? Big Fan, a black comedy collusion between underappreciated comedian Patton Oswalt and up-and-coming screenwriter-turned-director Robert D. Siegel, takes this idea to its natural extreme: What if you crossed “The Jim Rome Show” with Taxi Driver?

As the title clearly indicates, the Gallic import Coco Before Chanel explores the life of fashion maven Coco Chanel before she changed her name, became famous and started pasting her initials all over expensive handbags. While bolstered by the magnetic central performance of the always-charming Audrey Tautou (Amélie) and some damn fine period re-creation, Coco Before Chanel is also restrained by slow pacing and a general lack of drama. To put it in fashion terms, the details are stunning, but the overall shape is somewhat lacking.

On the surface, this Halloween’s TV schedule looks decidedly un-scary. There’s plenty of college football and major league baseball on the broadcast networks, but that hardly gets you in the holiday spirit. So if you wanna spend all day watching TV and still feel like you’re participating in the holiday, you’re going to have to dig deep.