Twenty-three new Hungarian features will be presented at the annual Hungarian Film Week (Jan 27-Feb 3) to local audiences and the approximately 120 foreign guests invited to the country's most important film event.

Sixteen of the new films screen in the festival's competition programme, including Benedek Fliegauf's Dealer which will also be play in the Berlinale's Forum section next month, Nimrod Antal's audience favourite, Control, and Andras Salamon's Getno.

Other directors presenting new productions include Gabor Herendi, Tamas Sas, Robert Ralston, Andras Jeles, Attila Janisch, Zsuzsa Boszormenyi, Steven Lovy, Gabor Fischer, Balazs Loth, Jozsef Nandori, Mari Cantu and Ferenc Torok.

Szabolcs Hajdu's Tamara, which was due to be presented at last year's event, will also make its Hungarian Film Week debut. The festival's information sidebar will include the latest film by Miklos Jancso, The Mohacs Disaster which will close this year's event.

Hungarian Film Week will kick off on Jan 27 with the screening of the forty-two documentaries selected for the competition. The feature programme starts on Jan 30. The festival will also screen thirty-five short films, thirteen of those in the experimental category.

This is the first major event in the country since the long-awaited film law offering tax incentives for film-makers was passed just before Christmas. Istvan Hiller, Hungary's cultural minister, will hold a press conference to talk about the law and its expected effects.

A large number of foreign producers have also been invited. Thanks to the Film Law, Hungary is hoping to lure some major foreign productions that might otherwise consider shooting in surrounding countries such as Romania, the Czech Republic or Bulgaria.