Mania Akbari'sIranian drama 20 Fingers, Rodney Evans's Harlem Renaissance feature Brother To Brother and Jacob Aaron Estes' youth drama MeanCreek will compete forthe International Competition's Grand Jury Prize at the first annual BahamasInternational Film Festival (BIFF), which runs from Dec 9 to 12.

OtherInternational Competition titles include Joseph Cedar's Israeli settlementpicture Campfire, andMarcelo Pineyro's Argentina-Spain political co-production Kamchatka.

Documentariesinclude Friendship Village (USA/Vietnam) by Michelle Mason, about a US veteran's return toVietnam to treat children with Agent Orange-related deformities; by TimothyGorski's US title Lolita: Slave To Entertainment, about man's relationship with wildlife;and Jim Butterworth, Aaron Lubarsky and Lisa Sleeth's US feature Seoul Train, which exposes the harrowing journeyNorth Koreans must take to escape their homeland.

More than 75narrative and documentary pictures are set to play in the festival, whichincludes the New Visions strand for first and second features competing for theModern Maverick Award, a Caribbean Sidebar, and short films.

The New Visionssection includes Yasuaki Nakajima's After The Apocalypse (USA), a futuristic drama about fivesurvivors trying to survive following an urban catastrophe; Charles Durning's DeadCanaries (USA), about asmall-time mobster who enters the witness protection programme; Phil Price'sCanadian entry Hatley High, about a young magician with extraordinary gifts; and YannSamuel's French surreal love story Love Me If You Dare, which Paramount Classics released inthe US earlier this year.

Playing in thenon-competitive World Cinema strand are Mark Achbar's documentary TheCorporation (Canada),Anders Thomas Jensen's Danish dark comedy The Green Butchers, and Byambasuren Davaa and LuigiFalorni's German-Mongolian documentary co-production The Story Of TheWeeping Camel.

Specialscreenings include John Duigan's epic Head In The Clouds, Spike Lee's She Hate Me, and David Gordon Green's thriller Undertow.

CaribbeanSidebar titles feature Jonathan Demme's stirring human rights documentary TheAgronomist, GladstoneYearwood's cultural documentary Chattel House, and Rick Elgood and Don Letts' OneLove.

"One of BIFF's main goals isto bring international and art house cinema to the Bahamas, where theycurrently do not exist," states festival executive director and founder LeslieVanderpool said in a statement. "We are pleased to be presenting diverse voicesfrom so many different parts of the world, and at the same time, identifyingThe Bahamas as a global cultural destination."