The Palm Springs International Film festival (PSIFF) will screen 222 films culled from more than 66 countries featuring four world, 40 US and 25 North American premieres.

Pierre Salvadori's French romantic comedy Priceless starring Audrey Tautou and Gad Elmaleh will close the festival on January 14 2008 and as previously announced Helen Hunt's feature directorial debut Then She Found Me will open the event on January 3.

World premieres include Peter West's Chihuly In The Hotshop (US), Steven Savage's Cosmic Radio (US), Mark McLaughlin's Hollywood Singing & Dancing (USA) and Teddy Grouya's Icons (US/Romania/Bulgaria).

The roster includes 55 of the 63 foreign language Oscar submissions, among them Stefan Ruzowitzky's Austrian drama The Counterfeiters, Nadine Labaki's Lebanese entry Caramel, Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's French film Persepolis and J A Bayona's Spanish supernatural drama The Orphanage.

Oscar nominated documentaries include Alex Gibney's Taxi To The Dark Side, Tony Kaye's Lake Of Fire, Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman's Nanking and Charles Ferguson's No End In Sight.

Festival director Darryl Macdonald said this year's streamlined line-up made for 'a richer and more focused event that maintains the festival's concentration on quality international programming, while highlighting the diversity of its offerings in a more accessible, audience-friendly way.'