Organizers of the 30th Montreal World Film Festival has announced a lineup of 22 films that will compete for the Grand Prize of the Americas, the top prize at the festival scheduled for August 24-September 4. 　　

 

The finalists are heavily weighted to films from Europe, Asia and Latin America, with only one strictly North American production: the festival's closing night selection, The Secret Life of Happy People, directed by Canadian Stphane Lapointe.

 

Hailing from Europe are the films Hell in Tangier (Belgium, Spain), Comrade Pedersen (Norway), Don't Worry I'm Fine (France), Search (Sweden), Ultima Thule: A Journey to the Edge of the World (Switzerland), Crossing Borders (Spain) and Warchild (Germany, Slovenia). 　　

 

Finalists from Asia are Daisy (South Korea), Ding Jun Shan (China), A Long Walk (Japan), Scream of the Ants (India, France), Snow in the Wind (China) and The Journey (India). 　　

 

The Latin American features are Black Butterfly(Peru), The Greatest Love of All (Brazil), Pages of Mauricio's Diary (Cuba, Mexico) and Noise (Puerto Rico). 　　

 

Fifteen short films from around the world will also compete for prizes. Altogether, the festival will screen 215 feature-length and 194 short- and medium-length movies from 76 countries around the globe. 　　

 

Among the films screening out of competition are the US documentary Saint of 9/11 and Todd Robinson's Lonely Hearts, a star-studded crime thriller based on the murderous real-life couple known as the Lonely Hearts Killers.　

 

Other highlights of this year's event include a competition of debut films, the return of the popular free screenings in front of Place des Arts and retrospective tributes to actors Bulle Ogier, Bruno Ganz, Kiyoshi Atsumi and Rmy Girard. 　

 

The jury selecting the winner of the Grand Prize and the festival's other awards includes Canadian director Marc-Andr Forcier, US actress Kathy Bates, Danish producer Vibeke Windelov, Argentinian actor Federico Luppi and French screenwriter Guillaume Laurant.

 

(Xinhua News Agency August 10, 2006)