The Palm Springs International Film Festival will open its18th annual event on Jan 4 with the US premiere of John Jeffcoat's Outsourced about a salesman who heads to India to train hisreplacement after his entire department is outsourced. It will close on Jan 14with the North American premiere of John Boorman's The Tiger's Tail starring Brendan Gleeson and Kim Cattrall.

254 films from 73 countries will screen at the festivalwhich includes 55 of the 61 films submitted for the foreign-language filmAcademy Award and the films under consideration in the documentary featurecategory. There will also be focuses on Latin cinema and Scandinavian cinema.

Other films at thefestival include US premieres of Lars Von Trier's The Boss Of It All, Paul Verhoeven's Black Book, Antoine de Caunes' Twice Upon A Time and Emanuele Crialese's Golden Door.

Rob Stewart's Sharkwater and David Lynch's Inland Empire will have special presentation screenings.

For a full lineup, see www.psfilmfest.org.