Ybor City’s premier film event has been going on just one year shy of a decade and does Tampa’s historical district proud as a mecca for arts and culture — in addition to bootylicious dance parties.

With more zing than a Jell-O shot, The Ybor Festival of the Moving Image offers a cutting-edge, high-quality array of movies, art and more tonight through Sunday. The best part — most of it is free!

This the festival is partnering with the Gasparilla International Film Festival this year (which begins in downtown Tampa tomorrow) in offering an impressive array of international shorts, live performances, art installations, documentaries and feature films. Several films even feature the filmmakers in attendance.

This article appears in Mar 17-23, 2011.