Sixteen features have been lined up to compete for the ShanghaiInternational Film Festival's (June 5-13) main international competition.

The event will also have a special focus on Nordic, UK, Irish, Spanishand New Zealand cinema. 1200 guests from 51 countries are expected to attendthe festival.

This year's competition jury is presided over by Chinese director DingYinnan (Deng Xiaoping) who is joined by filmmakers such as Korea's ParkChul-soo (Push Push), Australia's David Caesar (Dirty Deeds),Japan's Kuroki Kazuo (Kirishima 1945) and France's Olivier Assayas (Clean)as well as Hong Kong writer-producer Manfred Wong and Ron Henderson of theDenver Film Society.

The 16 films they have to choose between include Roger Michell's TheMother, EJ Yong's Untold Scandal as well as two new Chinese filmsHou Yong's Jasmine Women and Xiaolian Peng's Shanghai Story (seefull list below).

In total the festival screens no less than 49 Chinese films.

Mikael Hafstroem's Oscar-nominated Swedish drama Evil will screenin both the competition line-up, and will open the festival's focus on Nordiccinema on Sunday night.

Under the Scandinavian Films umbrella the Film Institutes from Sweden,Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway are bringing a number of talents and filmsto the event.

Attendees include Icelandic veteran filmmaker Fridrik Thor Fridriksson (Falcons),Nordic head of production for Nordisk Film Kim Magnusson and Danish filmmakersJesper W. Nielsen (Okay) and Nils Malmros (Facing The Truth) aswell as the CEO's of the Danish and Norwegian Film Institutes, Henning Camreand Vigdis Lian. Among the films in the Nordic program are Wilbur Wants ToKill Himself, Noi Albinoi, The Ketchup Effect, Kops, I Am Dina and KitchenStories.

Meanwhile, Spanishdirectors Carlos Saura and Manuel Gutierrez Argon are to travel to Shanghaiwith their movies to launch the festival's Spanish section - part of abilateral deal which will see 10 Chinese movies travel to the ValladolidInternational Film Festival in Spain this October and move on to the Festivalde Cine Actual in Madrid in November.

The six Spanish filmsselected for Shanghai include Saura's Salome and Sevillanas, and DonQuixote, Knight Errant by Aragon, and What Have I Done To Deserve This'by Pedro Almodovar. The remaining titles are Fernando Trueba's ShanghaiSpell and Piedras by Ramon Salzar.

It's the second time thatShanghai will host a Spanish film week, while the "returning" titlesfrom China to be shown around Spain will focus largely on works by SixthGeneration directors such as Zhang Yuan and Jia Zhangke.

(Fionnuala Halligancontributed to this story)

Shanghai International Film Festival: competition line-up
Brothers, dir Esa Illi. Finland
Evil, dir MikaelHafstrom. Sweden
Father & Sons, dir Michel Boujenah. France
Going Home, dir Damir Lukacevic. Germany
Heaven's Bookstore, dir Tetsuo Shinohara. Japan
Jasmine Women, dir Hou Yong. China
Musumedojoji, dir Yukiko Takayama. Japan.
My Father, dir Egidio Eronico. Italy.
Os Baytong, dir Nonzee Nimibutr. Thailand.
Shanghai Story, dir Xiaolian Peng. China.
Tamara, dir Szabolcs Hajdu. Hungary.
The Mother, Roger Michell. United Kingdom
The Society Of Jesus, dir Silvije Petranovic. Croatia
Tradition Of Lover Killing, dir Khosro Masumi. Iran
Untold Scandal, dir EJ Yong. South Korea.
Vinzent, dir Ayassi. Germany.