The 5thedition of Era New Horizons Film Festival opens today (July 21) withJean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's The Child in Cieszyn, southern Polandwith the directors in attendance.

Thefestival will close on July 31 with a gala screening of Lars von Trier's Manderlay.

This year,Era New Horizons is set to showcase 300 screenings of over 170 films from 42countries.

Among thehighlights are festival favourites such as Oliver Assayas's Clean, GreggAraki's Mysterious Skin, Saverio Costanzo's Private , Bahman Ghobadi`sTurtles Can Fly, Mark Dornford-May's U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha andKen Loach's Ae Fond Kiss.

Thefestival's competition consists of 18 director-driven films including LukasMoodysson's A Hole in My Heart, CS Leigh's Process, ManiaAkbari's 20 Fingers, Lisandro Alonso's Los Muertos, Thomas Clay'sThe Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael and Jia Zhang-ke's The World.

Thefestival's main award - Grand Prix - is voted by the audience and will beawarded to one of competition's film. In addition, Gutek Film, one of thefestival's organisers, will release theatrically the award winning film inPoland.