The newly launched Gaia International Film Festival of Portugal is carving a niche as the first stop for international summer releases in the Portuguese market with a high-profile line-up of 12 feature films competing in this year's first annual edition (June 14-22).

Among the titles to compete for the festival's non-monetary awards are:

Birthday Girl by Jez Butterworth (UK/USA)
Heaven by Tom Tykwer (Germany/USA)
The Man From Elysian Fields by George Hickenlooper (USA)
Killing Me Softly by Chen Kaige (UK)
Secretary by Steven Shainberg (USA)
Lost And Delirious by Lea Pool (Canada)
Lantana by Ray Lawrence (Australia)
The Devil's Backbone by Guillermo del Toro (Spain/Mexico)
Sex And Lucia by Julio Medem (Spain)
Mad Love by Vicente Aranda (Spain)
Harrison's Flowers by Elie Chouraqui (France)
Monsieur Batignole by Geriard Jugnot (France)

The festival will open with a screening of Spider-Man and close with Ice Age.

With a budget of Euros 1.5m, Gaia was launched in February during the International Film Festival of Oporto, known as Fantasporto. Fantasporto director Mario Dorminsky will double as Gaia's programming director. This year the festival is also planning a retrospective of 20th Century Fox studios.