The 12th Pusan International Film Festival (Oct 4-12) has announced a 275 film line-up from 64 countries - with 193 world, international or Asian premieres.

'This shows how far the Pusan festival has come in establishing itself,' said Asian Cinema programmer Kim Ji-seok. 'We're very proud to announce that all 11 films in the New Currents competition are either world or international premieres.' (See full list below.)

Films in the Window on Asian Cinema section include Thai prince Chatrichalerm Yukol's King Naresuan Part 1 andPart 2 and world premieres of Miike Takashi's Crows - Episode 0 and Darezhan Omirbayev's Chouga.

The World Cinema section will see the world premiere of Jannik Johansen's White Night joined by the likes of Cristian Mungiu's Cannes Palme d'Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days.

The Korean Cinema section will include independent and low-budget films such as Jeon Soo-il's WithA Girl Of Black Soil in the Vision section, and more established films like Kim Han-min's horror hit Paradise Murdered.

The Wide Angle section of shorts and documentaries will include Fantastic Parasuicides and the human rights omnibus series installment If You Were Me - Anima Vision 2.

The festival inaugurates two new sections: the Gala Presentation for the year's most talked about films or master cineastes' new films, including Royston Tan's 881 and Im Kwon-taek's Beyond the Years; and Flash Forward, a section for innovative first and second filmssuch asKorean-American director Michael Kang's West 32nd.

The Korean Cinema Retrospective this year is, for the first time, focused on an actor: Kim Seung-ho, a national star in the 50s and 60s, who later became a producer as well.

Other special programmes include a focus on New Malaysian Cinema, and a yet-to-be-announced line-up of Korean 'cultural heritage' films designated as National Assets.

In addition, PIFF will hold a retrospective on Dariush Mehrjui (The Cow), the Iranian auteur who is heading this year's New Currents Jury as previously announced.

Also previously announced as Asian Filmmaker of the Year, the late Edward Yang is to have a memorial retrospective as well, for which all eight of the Taiwanese director's films have been assembled for the first time.

Ancillary events include the Asian Cinema Fund which was announced earlier to be supporting 27 projects; and the Asian Film Academy (AFA), in its third year, with Mohsen Makhmalbaf as Dean, Ki-yong Park as Deputy Dean, and Pen-Ek Ratanaruang and Kurita Toyomichi as instructors in directing and cinematography respectively.

The Asia Pacific Actors Network (APAN) will hold a launching event during PIFF. Led by veteran Korean actors Ahn Sung-ki, Kang Soo-yeon, and Park Joong-hoon, the network aims to bring together actors from around Asia and create a supporting fund of $106,000.

PIFF 2007 New Currents Competition Line-up

A Bao A Qu (Japan) Naoki Kato (Int'l premiere)

Endless Night (China) Jian Lin Pan (World premiere)

Flower In The Pocket (Malaysia) Seng Tat Liew (World premiere)

God Man Dog (Taiwan) Singing Chen (World premiere)

Life Track (China/South Korea) Guang Hao Jin (World premiere)

Milky Way Liberation Front (S. Korea) Yoon Seongho (World premiere)

My Song is... (S. Korea) Ahn Seul-ki (World premiere)

Park & Love Hotel (Japan) Izuru Kumasaka (Int'l premiere)

The Red Awn (China) Shangjun Cai (World premiere)

Tribe (Philippines) Jim Libiran (Int'l premiere)

Wonderful Town(Thailand) Aditya Assarat (World premiere)

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