Arthur Hiller, theOscar-nominated director of Love Story and former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts &Sciences, will be the guest of honour at the American Comedy Festival inAthens, Greece, this weekend. The week-long festival runs from Dec 13-19 andhas been organised by the US Embassy in association with the Greek FilmArchives.

The festival will kick offwith an invitation-only event at the Apollon Theatre, when Hiller will discuss SilverStreak, which he directed in 1976and is one of five of his pictures that will screen during the festival.Twenty-two comedies are programmed, including Hiller's OutrageousFortune (1987), The In-Laws (1979) and The Out-Of-Towners (1970).

In addition to a 1970 BestDirector Oscar nomination for Love Story, Hiller won the Academy's JeanHersholt Humanitarian Award in 2001 for 'humanitarian efforts that havebrought credit to the industry'. He served as Academy president from1993-1997. His trip has been organised by the Academy's Visiting ArtsProgram, which was set up in 1970 to link film-makers with the academic studyof their work.