Edinburgh festival to host Luzhin premiere

Marleen Gorris' The Luzhin Defence and Bill Eagles' Beautiful Creatures are amongst the world premieres at next month's Edinburgh International Film Festival (August 13-27).

Artistic director Lizzie Francke has also confirmed that the festival will be book-ended by Lars von Trier's opening film Dancer In The Dark and Wong Kar-Wai's closing title In the Mood For Love.

But the event - which premiered Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels - also has a strong UK line-up. World premieres for UK titles include Elliot Hegarty's County Kilburn, a comic story set around an Irish pub in London; Bernard Rudden's clubbing generation noir Daybreak; and Paul Pawlikowski's The Last Resort, a BBC TV project that also went out to the Venice International Film Festival. Terence Davies' The House Of Mirth will also screen following its premiere at Locarno.

Other world premieres of local films include John Hay's football coming of age tale There's Only One Jimmy Grimble. Cannes favourite Billy Elliot (aka Dancer) and Jamie Thraves' The Low Down make their UK premieres.

Francke said that she would still like to see British cinema expanding its range but argues that the sector is in a "transitional" phase as funding and production levels increase. "We are going through a huge learning curve," she said.

Gala screenings slap on some gloss with films such as The Hollow Man, for which director Paul Verhoeven and possibly star Elisabeth Shue are to attend. The late night strand includes the international premiere of French indie horror Deep In The Woods (Promenons-Nous Dans Les Bois).

Rounding out the festival are the Directors' Focus section and a side-bar for first and second-time film-makers titled Rosebud, which includes the international premiere of Icelandic hit black comedy 101 Reykjavik.

"My line is that this a festival for the 21st century, moving from the mechanical to the digital age," Francke said. "That tension is exemplified by films such as the opening picture."

DANCER IN THE DARK (UK Premiere)
Lars von Trier. Denmark-Sweden-Germany-France. 2000. 140 mins.
Björk, Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Marc Barr

IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (UK Premiere)
Wong Kar-Wai. Hong Kong. 2000. 98 mins.
Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung, Rebecca Pan

BEAUTIFUL CREATURES (World Premiere)
Bill Eagles. UK. 1999. 100 mins.
Rachel Weisz, Susan Lynch, Iain Glenn

BILLY ELLIOT (UK Premiere)
Stephen Daldry. UK. 1999. 111 mins.
Jamie Bell, Gary Lewis, Julie Walters

COUNTY KILBURN (World Premiere)
Elliot Hegarty. UK. 2000. 82 mins.
Ciaran Mcmenamin, Rick Warden, John Bowe

DAYBREAK (World Premiere)
Bernard Rudden. UK. 2000. 100 mins.
Diane Bell, Flash, Gaynor Purvis

HOTEL SPLENDIDE (UK Premiere)
Terence Gross. UK-France. 1999. 98 mins.
Toni Collette, Daniel Craig, Stephen Tompkinson

THE LAST RESORT (World Premiere)
Paul Pawlikowski. UK. 2000. 80 mins.
Dina Korzun, Artiom Streinikov, Paddy Considine

THE LOW DOWN
Jamie Thraves. UK. 2000. 96 mins.
Aidan Gillen, Kate Ashfield, Dean Lennox

MISS JULIE (Scottish Premiere)
Mike Figgis. UK. 1999. 96 mins.
Peter Mullan, Saffron Burrows, Maria Doyle Kennedy

THE NINE LIVES OF TOMAS KATZ (UK Premiere)
Ben Hopkins. UK. 1999. 90 mins.
Thomas Fisher, Ian McNeice, Tim Barlow

ONE LIFE STAND (UK Premiere)
May Miles Thomas. UK. 2000. 115 mins.
Maureen Carr, John Kielty, Gary Lewis

PURELY BELTER (UK Premiere)
Mark Herman. UK. 2000. 95 mins.
Chris Beattie, Greg McLane, Charlie Hardwick

SOME VOICES (UK Premiere)
Simon Cellan Jones. UK. 2000. 101 mins.
Daniel Craig, David Morrissey, Kelly Macdonald

THERE'S ONLY ONE JIMMY GRIMBLE (World Premiere)
John Hay. UK. 2000. 110 mins.
Robert Carlyle, Gina McKee, Ray Winstone

EU TU ELES (Me, You, Them) (UK Premiere)
Andrucha Waddington. Brazil. 2000. 104mins.
Regina Case, Lima Duarte, Stênio Garcia

THE HOLLOW MANPaul Verhoeven. US. 2000. 93 mins.
Kevin Bacon, Elisabeth Shue, Josh Brolin

THE HOUSE OF MIRTH
Terence Davies. UK. 2000. 140 mins.
Gillian Anderson, Eric Stoltz, Dan Ackroyd

KEEPING THE FAITH (UK Premiere)
Edward Norton. US. 2000. 129 mins.
Ben Stiller, Edward Norton, Jenna Elfman

THE LITTLE VAMPIRE (UK Premiere)
Ulrich Edel. Germany-Scotland. 2000. 96 mins.
Jonathan Lipnicki, Richard E Grant, Rollo Weeks

LOVE AND SEX (UK Premiere)
Valerie Breiman. US. 2000. 82 mins.
Famke Janssen, Jon Favreau, Noah Emmerich

THE LUZHIN DEFENCE (World Premiere)
Marleen Gorris. UK. 2000. 110 mins.
John Turturro, Emily Watson, Geraldine James

NURSE BETTY (UK Premiere)
Neil LaBute. US. 1999. 110 mins.
Renee Zellweger, Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock

O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU' (UK Premiere)
Joel Coen. US. 2000. 102 mins.
George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson

ROAD TRIP (UK Premiere)
Todd Phillips. US. 2000. 93 mins.
Breckin Meyer, Seann William Scott, Amy Smart

THINGS YOU CAN TELL JUST BY LOOKING AT HER (UK Premiere)
Rodrigo Garcia. US. 1999. 109 mins.
Glenn Close, Cameron Diaz, Calista Flockhart

TITUS (UK Premiere)
Julie Taymor. US. 1999. 157 mins.
Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange, Alan Cumming

YOU CAN COUNT ON ME (International Premiere)
Kenneth Lonergan. US. 1999. 111mins.
Laura Linney, Matthew Broderick, Mark Ruffalo

ANATOMIE (Anatomy) (UK Premiere)
Stefan Ruzowitzky. Germany. 2000. 98 mins.
Franka Potente, Benno Fürmann, Anna Loos

CUT (UK Premiere)
Kimble Rendall. Australia. 2000. 79 mins.
Jessica Napier, Kylie Minogue, Molly Ringwald

DEEP IN THE WOODS (International Premiere)
Lionel Delplanque. France. 2000. 90 mins.
Clotilde Courau, Clement Sibony, Denis Lavant

GROOVE (International Premiere)
Greg Harrison. US. 1999. 83 mins.
Lola Glaudini, Hamish Linklater, Denny Kirkwood

THE IRREFUTABLE TRUTH ABOUT DEMONS (UK Premiere)
Glen Standring. New Zealand. 2000. 90 mins.
Karl Urban, Katie Wolfe, Sally Stockwell

THE RING (Ringu) (UK Premiere)
Hideo Nakata. Japan. 1998. 95 mins.
Nanako Matsushima, Hiroyuki Sanada, Miki Nakatani

RING 2 (Ringu 2) (UK Premiere)
Hideo Nakata. Japan. 1999. 95 mins.
Miki Nakatani, Hitomi Sato, Kyoko Fukada

RING 0: The Birthday (Ringu 0) (UK Premiere)
Norio Tsuruta. Japan. 2000. 98 mins.
Yukie Nakama, Seiichi Tanabe, Yoshiko Tanaka

SHIRI (UK Premiere)
Je-gyu Kang. South Korea. 1999. 124 mins.
Han Suckyu, Choi Min-shik, Song Kang-ho

TELL ME SOMETHING (UK Prem