Batman Begins and Costa-Gavras' Le Couperet are amongthe titles that will receive their European premiere at the 51stTaormina Film Festival (11-18 June).

Guests who will attend the festival and give a cinemalesson include director Bob Rafelson, Andie MacDowell, Italian actresses VirnaLisi and Laura Morante, Malcolm MacDowell and Hugh Hudson.

Taormina, directed for the seventh consecutive year by FeliceLaudadio, will also host the premiere of Brad Mirman's Tuscany-set TheShadow Dancer (aka Shadows in the Sun) with Harvey Keitel, andFlorian Gallenberger's debut feature Shadows of Time (Schatten der Zeit),an epic love story set in India before independence.

Also screening are Dario Argento's Do You Like Hitchcock',and Miguel Bardem's Incautos with Victoria Abril.

This year, the festival will also hold a competition for12 first and second features. These include Carlo Nero's The Feverfeaturing the director's mother, Vanessa Redgrave; I Am a Sex Addict byCaveh Zahedi and Dermot Doyle's Hill 16. The winner will receive Euros 25,000.

The festival will also host an awards ceremony for Italian filmsreleased in cinemas between June 2004 and May 2005, to be broadcast on RAI.