The 12th Sheffield International Documentary Festival,running October 10-16, will kick off a new strand of industry events with thisyear's festival.

The new "Sharp End" programmes for industry professionals andfilmmakers will feature "meet the commissioners" briefings, interviews with BBCdirector general Mark Thompson and film-maker Peter Kosminsky, and discussionsabout alternative distribution and high definition technology.

Sheffield will also host a newcomers day for budding filmmakers.In other industry initiatives, the festival will host pre-screened pitching contests to win documentary commissions for Channel 4 and SkyOne.

The Sheffield festival's film line-up includes more than 75films from 23 countries, plus 12 student shorts in the running for the JerwoodFirst Cuts Documentary Award.

The selections include 14 worldpremieres, five European premieres, and 25 UK premieres. Marilyn Agrelo's UShit Mad Hot Ballroom, about New York public school kids competing in theballroom dance world, will open the festival with a gala screening. The closingfilm will be LisaMunthe & Helen Ahlsson's The Armwrestler from Solitude,about a Swedish village's arm-wrestling tradition.

World premieres include MarkDaniels' Enemy Images, about how war is presented on television; GideonKoppel's A Sketchbook for the LibraryVan, about a Welsh farmingcommunity; Peter Gordan's refugee tale Asylum; Kai Nordberg's Childin Time, about a Finnish father and son; and Julie Moggan's QE2documentary Smooth Seas All The Way.

UK premieres include Mika Kaurismaki's Brasileirinho, aboutBrazilian music, Michael Klint's Dogumentary: Get a Life, aDogma-inspired documentary about a lethal disease affecting African children,Ellen Perry's The Fall of Fujimori about former Peruvian presidentAlberto Fujimori, and Mark Wexler's documentary portrait of his cinematographyfather Haskell Wexler, Tell Them Who You Are.