Retrospectives dedicated to David Bowie and Luis Bunuel are among the highlights of the Oporto International Film Festival - better known as 'Fantasporto' - which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year (Feb 25-March 4).

Although the festival is best known for fantasy and sci-fi, it boasts a wide-ranging international Official Selection. Films in this non-competitive section this year include Wayne Wang's Anywhere But Here, Robert Sarkies' Scarfies, Guillermo del Toro's Cronos, Roman Polanski's The Ninth Gate, Kevin Smith's Dogma and Mark Illsley's Happy Texas. Kimberly Pierce's Boys Don't Cry and David O. Russel's Three Kings will open and close the event.

Films to make their world premieres in the Official Selection include Derek Vanlint's The Spreading Ground, Nils Gaup's Misery Harbour, Jeff Celentano's Primary Suspect and Jan Kroll's From Star Wars To Star Wars - The Story Of Industrial Light And Magic.

The official competitive section, known as Director's Week, boasts films from budding talent such as Allison Anders/Kurt Voss's Sugar Town, Les Bernstein's Night Train, Damien O'Donnell's East Is East and Pablo Llorca's Todos Hieren.

Other sidebars include '500 Years Of The Discovery Of Brazil,' likely to prove popular among Portuguese cinema-goers, who turn out in droves for the film festival and are fans of Brazilian TV and film stars.