International festival programmers are some of the strongest supporters of Hungarian Film Week. Cristiana Giaccardi, head of programming for Locarno, where Hungarian films have enjoyed a strong presence in recent years, will attend this year's in the expectation of finding at least one title for Locarno's next edition. "We really believe Hungarian cinema is very strong, and Hungarian Film Week gives you the opportunity to find out what's going on in Hungarian cinema," says Giaccardi.

Joel Chapron, head of research for Unifrance and a selector for the Cannes film festival, describes the event as "the best organised national film festival in Eastern Europe".

He notes Hungarian films are remarkably successful at securing commercial distribution in France and in being selected for Cannes. "I think this is due in large part to the success of Hungarian Film Week," he says.

Last year Kornel Mundruczo's drama Delta won the Golden Reel and went on to screen in Competition at Cannes and win the festival's Fipresci prize.

The opening film of this year's Hungarian Film Week will be the world premiere of The History Of Aviation, a short film from European Film Award-winner Balint Kenyeres, whose credits include Before Dawn. Veteran Hungarian director Marta Meszaros will chair the main jury, which will select the Golden Reel winner from 18 titles, 13 of which are world premieres.

One of the most anticipated titles is Gyorgi Palfi's I'm Not Your Friend; Palfi stunned audiences with his grotesque Taxidermia, which won the Golden Reel in 2006. Also making its world premiere is Pater Sparrow's 1, based on the book One Human Minute by Polish science-fiction writer Stanislaw Lem and produced by Zoltan Kamondi of Honeymood Films.

The co-production Pinprick is the feature debut of Swiss-born writer-director Daniel Young and is a Hungary-Switzerland co-production. The English-language thriller stars Rachel Blake and Laura Greenwood as a mother and daughter terrorised by a strange man.

Lost Times is Hungarian director Aron Matyassy's first feature and is about a man seeking justice. Matyassy is an established assistant director and worked on Janos Szasz's Opium: Diary Of A Madwoman.

The other world premieres at Hungarian Film Week are Viktor Oszkar Nagy's Father's Acre, Peter Szajki's Intimate Headshot, Andras Szirtes' Juliette, Simon Szabo's Paper Planes, Peter Gardos' Prank, Janos Edelenyi's Prima Primavera, Arpad Sopsits' The Seventh Circle, Roland Vranik's Transmission and Dezso Zsigmond's Wild Girl.

One notable omission is Katalin Varga, a Romania-Hungary co-production directed by the UK's Peter Strickland, which is expected to screen at the Berlinale, where Memento is launching international sales of the film.