Chen Kaige, the acclaimed Chinese director of Together and Farewell My Concubine, will be guest director at the 2003 IFP Los Angeles Film Festival, executive director Dawn Hudson has announced. The 9th annual event runs from Jun 11-21.

Kaige's duties will see him host a two-day film-maker retreat, programme a sidebar of personally inspiring films and perform various ancillary tasks.

The sidebar selections are Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai, Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather: Part II and Francois Truffaut's Shoot The Piano Player.

In addition Kasi Lemmons, whose credits include Eve's Bayou, will launch the inaugural Artist in Residence series, which each year will invite an established film-maker of the IFP board to curate a small retrospective of personal favourites and conduct an on-stage interview.

Lemmons contribution includes a screening of the 1971 drama Brother John, followed by an interview with the film's star Sidney Poitier.

The other choices are Nicolas Roeg's psychothriller Don't Look Now and Euzhan Palcy's award-winning first feature, the family drama Sugar Cane Alley.

This year's Coffee Talk series includes panels with David Fincher, Jodie Foster, Catherine Hardwicke, George Hickenlooper, Penelope Spheeris and Lemmons, among others.