The Hong Kong Arts Development Council has unveiled the line-up of the 28th Hong Kong International Film Festival (April 6-21) which includes Oscar winner The Barbarian Invasions and the winner of last year's Palme d'Or, Gus Van Sant's Elephant.

In total, around 300 movies from more than 40 countries will screen at the 16-day event. Two mainland Chinese productions - Li Shaohong's Baober In Love and Ann Hui's Goddess Of Mercy - open the festival while Eric Rohmer's Triple Agent will screen at the awards gala. The closing films are Tsai Ming-liang's Goodbye, Dragon Inn and Alain Resnais' Not On The Lips.

Eight films will compete in the second edition of the Firebird Awards for Young Cinema, including Zhu Wen's South Of The Clouds, Lee Kang-sheng's The Missing and Roberto Moreira's Up Against Them All. Other competitive sections include the Asian DV Competition and the Humanitarian Awards for Documentaries.

This year's festival will be the last as a government entity although next year's event will still be partially funded by the Home Affairs Bureau.

The Hong Kong Film Awards, organised separately, will take place April 4 but the Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), cancelled last year because of SARS, will not return this year as it failed to secure funding.