A selection of eighteen films from seventeen differentcountries will compete for the New Directors award at next month's 52nd annualedition of Spain's San Sebastian International Film Festival (Sept 17-25).

The selection furthers the geographic diversity of thefestival's official competition line-up, unveiled last week. The Altadis-NewDirectors prize comes with a purse of Euros 90,000.

Three of the films selected also compete in the officialsection. They are: Xu Jinglei's A LetterFrom An Unknown Woman (China); Song Il-gon's Spider Forest (Geo-Mi-Soop) (South Korea); and Pete Travis' Omagh (Ire-UK).

Only one other title comes from Asia: Wong Ching Po's Jiang Hu (Hong Kong). Latin America isrepresented by Nicolas Tuozzo's ProximaSalida (Arg); Ciro Guerra's previous Films in Progress participant, The Wandering Shadows (La Sombra DelCaminante) (Col); and Jorge Gaggero's Beba& Dora (Beba Y Dora, Cama Adentro) (Arg-Sp).

Europe offers the most films, including: Bettina Oberli's North Wind (Im Nordwind) (Sw); DavidGrieco's Evilenko (It-Rus); PabloMalo's Cold Winter Sun (Frio Sol DeInvierno) (Sp); Rouven Blankenfeld's GravenUpon Thy Palm (In Die Hand Geschrieben) (Ger); Lucile Hadzihalilovic's Innocence (Fr) and Aksel Hennie's Uno (Nor).

English-language fare includes Amma Asante's A Way Of Life (UK); Brad McGann's In My Father's Den (NZ); and DanielMacIvor's Wilby Wonderful (Can).

Ahmet Ulucay's BoatsOut Of Watermelon Rinds (Karpuz Kabugundan Gemiler Yapmak) comes fromTurkey, and Fanta Regina Nacro's TheRevealing Night (La Nuit De La Verite) is a co-production between Franceand Burkina Faso.