Five features by newcomers have been nominated for the International Ingmar Bergman Debut Award, which will be given for the first time at Sweden's Gothenberg Film Festival 2007.

They include UK director Andrea Arnold's Red Road and Norwegian director Joachim Trier's Reprise, which have already helped themselves to several international prizes.

"The award should encourage young directors to focus on really important issues, at a time when the film industry looks more and more like a business of a butchery and fornication," said the 88-year-old director, as he announced the new accolade, instigated with the Göteborg festival - Scandinavia's largest film event ( Jan 26-Feb 5.)

The prize - a visit to next summer's Bergman Week at Faro and an engraved stone from his own beach - will be given to a director with a first film in the festival," dealing with, in a broad sense, issue displaying a dynamic or experimental consciousness of cinematic expression."

Bergman will be chairman of the jury including Polish director Agnieszka Holland, Iranian director Jafar Panahi, film professors Maaret Koskinen (Sweden) and Stephen Ujlaki (USA).

Besides Red Road and Reprise, the list of nominees comprises Czech director Marta Novakova's Marta, which received the Student's Jury Award at Cottbus; Hungarian director Agnes Kocsis's Friss Fresh Air, which won for Best Director at the Women's Film Festival in New Delhi; and Russian director Boris Khlebnikov's Free Floating.

Khlebnbikov's Road To Koktebel, which he co-directed with Aleksei Popogrebski, has bagged numerous international prizes.

Arnold launched her first feature at Cannes, where it bagged the Jury Prize, and went on to score five Scottish BAFTA honours, including Best Film and Best Director, as well two British Independent Film Awards.

Trier's debut left Karlovy Vary with the Crystal Global for Best Director as well as the Don Quixote Award, later to win the Diesel Discovery Prize in Toronto.