Worldpremieres of Mark Sobel's Kennedy era drama The Commission and Lisa GayHamilton's profile of activist Beah Richards in Beah: A Black Woman Speaksare among an eclectic line-up unveiled by organisers of the AFI Fest 2003,which runs from Nov 6-16.

Theroster of 134 international titles includes 72 world, North American and USpremieres and plays out across nine programmes focusing on internationalcinema, documentaries, shorts, special screenings and the inaugural BeyondConflict: Focus on the Middle East strand.

Amongthe special screenings are Errol Morris' Robert McNamara documentary The FogOf War, Robert Altman's ensemble ballet film The Company, JimSheridan's New York-set drama In America and Sylvain Chomet's acclaimedanimated feature The Triplets Of Belleville.

Internationalfeature competition entries in the Preservation Spotlight series include the USpremieres of Anders Thomas Jensen's grisly Danish comedy The Green Butchers,Hugo Rodriguez's Mexico City-set comedy Nicotina and Spiro Scimone andFrancesco Sframeli's Italian comedy Two Friends, which won the GoldenLion of the Future at Venice.

Inthe international documentary competition there are world premieres forHamilton's Beah: A Black Woman Speaks and Paul Kell's hip-hop-themed FiveSides Of A Coin.

Otherentries include She Got Game, Bobbi Jo Krals and Abbey Jack Neidik'sbehind-the-scenes look at the women's tennis tour, and Joy Of Madness,14-year-old Hana Makmalbaf's account of older sister Samira's latest film AtFive In The Afternoon, which screens in the Beyond Conflict: Focus On TheMiddle East programme.

SteveAnderson's debut surreal comedy The Big Empty receives its worldpremiere in the American Directions strand, as does Sobel's The Commission,an account of the Warren Commission hearings into the Kennedy Assassination.

TheMade In Germany section, now in its third year, features the North Americanpremieres of Paul Harather's romance Adam & Eva, Oskar Roehler'srelationship drama Angst and Tomy Wigand's critical and commercial hit TheFlying Classroom, as well as Robert Fischer's documentary Fassbinder InHollywood.

TheAsian New Classics strand presents North American premieres of Kim Ki-Duk'snightmarish The Coast Guard and US premieres of Takeshi Kitano's lovestory Dolls and Wang Xiaoshuai's father-and-son drama Drifters.

TheBeyond Conflict: Focus On The Middle East programme features an array ofprovocative titles, among them world premieres of Pietra Brettkelly's BeautyWill Save The World, which offers a snapshot of Libyan life set against thebackdrop of the national beauty pageant, and Richard Berman's Fire Within,about 30 Arab, Israeli and American teenagers who bond during their travelsthrough Israel and Spain.

TheEuropean Showcase includes several official foreign language entries for the2004 Academy Awards, including Gabriele Salvatores' Italian thriller I'm NotScared, the US premiere of Jean-Paul Rappeneau's French wartime drama BonVoyage and Evil, Mikael Hafstrom's hit Swedish drama.

Ramonde Espana's Kill Me Tender gets a world premiere in the Latin Cinemaseries, alongside the US premiere of Francisco J Lombardi's political thriller WhatThe Eye Doesn't See and a screening of Marcelo Pineyro's acclaimedArgentinian political drama Kamchatka.

Fourprogrammes of short films and a tribute to Omar Sharif also take pride of placeat the event, which as previously reported here opens with the North Americanpremiere of Nigel Cole's Calendar Girls and closes with the worldpremiere of Patty Jenkins' serial killer drama Monster.