Peter Webber's Oscar-nominated Girl With A Pearl Earringwill be the opening film at this year's Munich Film Festival which begins onJune 26.

The eight-day festival, which is the first under the management ofAndreas Stroehl, will also include screenings in of such films as WalterSalles' The Motorcycle Diaries, Ivan Fila's King Of Thieves, HansWeingartner's The Edukators, Jean-Luc Godard's Notre Musique andYann Samuell's Jeux D'Enfants as well as a special focus on independentAsian cinema and a retrospective dedicated to 45 films by brothers Aki and MikaKaurismaki.

In addition, Sir Alan Parker will be presented with this year'sCineMerit Award for his contribution to cinematic art at a special screening ofThe Commitments. Past winners of the CineMerit Award include MilosForman, Susan Sarandon, Jacqueline Bisset, producer Marin Karmitz, BarbaraHershey, and, last year, Geraldine Chaplin.