The 51st Donostia-San Sebastian International Film Festival has announced the first titles set to compete in its Zabaltegi sidebar for the New Directors prize.

First or second works are eligible, and aside from the Zabaltegi titles announced today several more in the Official Section and Latin Horizons sidebar will also compete for the E120,000 New Directors prize and a newly created Arte award of Euros 92,000 for broadcasting rights.

"Cinema in all its genres tends to reflect reality, and this is something that also ties our films together," says festival director Mikel Olaciregui. "These are films that tell local stories but reflect a broader reality and offer insights into how people live in different societies around the world."

As with this year's official selection, the Zabaltegi New Directors line-up shows an emphasis on European and Latin American cinema. Iraq and Russia are both represented - the former in Zaman, The Man Who Lives In The Reeds (Zaman, L'Homme Des Roseaux) an Iraqi-French co-production from documentary director Amer Alwan, and the latter in Guennadiy Sidorov's Old Women (Starukhi).

Three Spanish titles are Manuel Martin Cuenca's The Weakness Of The Bolchevique (La Flaqueza Del Bolchevique); Patxi Barco's The End Of The Night (El Final De La Noche); and Juan Madrid's Tangier (Tanger).

Other European titles include: Benoit Mariage's The Missing Half (L'Autre) (Belg); Xavier Giannolli's Les Corps Impatients (Fr); Piero Sanna's The Destination (La Destinazione) (It); Goran Rebic's Donau, Duna, Dunaj, Dunav, Dunarea (Austria); Michaela Pavlatova's Faithless Games (Cz Rep); Pieter Kuijpers' Godforsaken (Van God Los) (Holl); John Crowley's Intermission (Ire-UK-US); Christian Philibert's Arab's Work (Travail D'Arabe) (Fr); Oliver Paulus and Stefan Hillebrand's When The Right One Comes Along (Wenn Der Richtige Kommt) (Sw-Ger).

From Latin America come four films: Vicente Amorim's O Caminho Das Nuvens (Br); Victor Manuel Arregui's Out Of The Game (Fuera De Juego) (Ec); Jorge Furtado's The Man Who Copied (O Homem Que Copiava) (Br); and Hugo Rodriguez's Nicotina (Mex-Arg-Sp).

Already-announced New Directors competitors from the Official Selection include: Achero Manas' November (Noviembre) from Spain; Bong Joon-ho's Memories Of Murder (Sa-Lin Eui Chu-Eok) from Korea; Tom MacCarthy's The Station Agent from the US; and UK-Luxembourg co-production Girl With A Pearl Earring by Peter Webber. The Latin Horizons competitors will be announced later this week.