James, riding high following his competition award at Miami over the weekend for The Interrupters (pictured), will become the Dallas International Film Festival’s first documentary filmmaker to receive the Dallas Star Award.

Festival organisers also unveiled the full schedule that will screen throughout the Mar 31-Apr 10 event and confirmed that the previously announced Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’ Journey will open the festival.

“For the 13 years that I have been involved in film festivals, a filmmaker that consistently delivers and brings excitement to our audience is Steve James,” chairman of the Dallas Film Society board of directors Michael Cain said.”From the world-renowned Hoop Dreams that catapulted him into the who’s who list of documentarians, to the personal Stevie and Reel Paradise, to most recently unearthing the personalities of those attempting to stop the violence on the streets in Chicago in The Interrupters, Steve James has a unique ability to delve into the soul of every character in his films and consume his audience in the process.

The schedule of films includes James’ The Interrupters, Francois Ozon’s Potiche, Takashi Miike’s 13 Assassins, Miranda July’s The Future, Morgan Spurlock’s The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Shawn Ku’s Beautiful Boy and Janus Metz Pedersen’s Armadillo.

Among the Latino Spotlight titles are Alejandro Molina’s By Day And By Night (Mexico) and Daniel Vega Videl and Diego Vega Videl’s October (Peru) and India Spotlight features among others Praveen Sattaru’s LBW (Life Before Wedding) and Aamir Bashir’s Autumn.

For the full line-up visit the official website.