Leading up to the big Oscar showdown between Kathryn Bigelow and ex-hubbie James Cameron this weekend, the World of Comedy Film Festival is presenting its annual blitz of funny flicks. Sure, humour is a very subjective thing. But whether you're keen on dark, silly, satirical, screwball, animated, romantic, political or sex comedies, World of Comedy should have you covered.

The deets: 59 shorts and features from Canada and around the world, from Friday, March 5 to Sunday, March 7, 2010 at the Innis Town Hall Theatre.

Veteran film and TV character actor Paul Dooley's presents his directorial debut Head Over Heels in the opening night program "A Feast of Comedy Shorts". The headlining set also includes Bill Plympton's latest from his "dog" series, Horn Dog, and aFrench film I quite like called The Business Trip (Voyage D'affaires) in which a timely opportunity (sort of) presents itself to a man who's just been dumped.

Dooley's got a whopping 155 acting credits listed on IMDB, including stints on ALF, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. He'll be hosting a workshop about "Improv for Character Actors" on Friday, March 5, 2010 from 2pm to 5pm at Toronto's Second City Training Centre to kick off the festival.

On Saturday, go animated or edgy. The afternoon program "Animation and Other Wonders" is dominated by the adventures of Shaun the Sheep, featuring four fresh new episodes from UK-based Aardman Animation (Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run).

Later at 9:30 p.m., "Shorts on the Line!" (and maybe just over it) has some solid picks, like The Resurrection of Officer Rollins, a zombie paramedic flick with a supernatural twist - that also makes time for its two heroes to get into a couple of philosophical discussions. There are a few too many sex comedies for my liking in this program, but I found some of the characters in Take My Wife surprisingly charming.

Plus, somewhere in the mix there's an action hero spoof called The Action Hero's Guide To Saving Lives, Frank Dancoolo: Paranormal Drug Dealer, and yet another friendly poke at Herzog, Cooking with Werner, where the acclaimed filmmaker (not played by the acclaimed filmmaker) hosts a cooking show to fund his next movie.

The World of Comedy Film Festival will inspire chuckles from March 5 to 7, 2010. Ticket are $10/$60 for a pass (cash only) at Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Avenue.

Stills from Take My Wife and Horn Dog.