An impressive array of international guests is set to attend the 24th Havana Film Festival of New Latin American Cinema (Dec 3-13) which opens with Mexican Foreign Oscar contender El Crimen Del Padre Amaro.

Festival director Ivan Giroud promises a celebrity-studded event with confirmed guests led by Marisa Tomei, Julie Taymor, Matt Dillon; Argentinean actors Graciela Borges, Gaston Pauls and Federico Luppi; Brazilian director Karim Ainouz (Madame Sata) and award-winning Argentinean directors Carlos Sorin (Historias Minimas), Pablo Trapero (El Bonaerense) and Adolfo Aristarain (Lugares Comunes).

The guest list reflects the growing interest of the film industry in Cuba. Steven Spielberg, Steven Soderbergh and Oliver Stone have all recently made cultural visits to the country, which has been under a US embargo since Fidel Castro's revolution in 1959. Although not actually shot on Cuba, Bond film Die Another Day is set partially on the island as is the forthcoming Dirty Dancing sequel, Havana Nights.

Crimen director Carlos Carrera and supporting actor Sancho Gracia will present the controversial priest drama which opened in the US on November 15th. The Spanish contingent is represented by Aitana Sanchez Gijon, Ariadna Gil, Fernando Leon de Aranoa (Mondays In The Sun), Alex de la Iglesia (800 Bullets), Gerardo Herrero (El Lugar Donde Estuvo El Paraiso) and Manuel Gutierrez Aragon (El Caballero Don Quijote).

El Crimen leads a line up of more than 300 films from Latin America. Up to 110 films will compete within the various categories, including fiction, animation, documentaries and directorial debuts.

The festival hopes to surpass the attendance last year of 670,000, making use of 20 screens in Havana and another 53 in the provinces.