The German premieres of the World War II series Band Of Brothers, produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, American Beauty author Akan Ball's black comedy Six Feet Under and Swiss documentary filmmaker Christian Frei's Oscar-nominated War Photographer are among the international productions being lined up for the 12th International Television Festival in Cologne during this year's Cologne Conference (June 15-21, 2002).

Commenting on this year's festival selection from more than 600 entries, which also includes the US real-time series 24 starring Kiefer Sutherland and new BBC productions by Danny Boyle, programme director Martina Richter declared that "the programme entries we have viewed so far promise an unusually strong year, above all in terms of fiction programmes".

The Cologne Conference & Screenings festival, conference and programme market will be staged in a different sequence this year, with the Cologne Screenings market platform opening on June 18 and the festival programme beginning on June 15. Meanwhile, the conference section - which this year will focus on "the transformaton of the German TV market and its repercussions for the broadcasting landscape, production industry and programming" as well as "international strategies for up-and-coming TV and film talent" - will be held from June 19 as part of the Media Forum NRW.