The Rio International FilmFestival, which takes place Sept 22 to Oct 6, has unveiled its programme ofover 300 features and documentaries from 60 countries.

Sponsored by the City ofRio, the Secretary of Culture, Riofilme and Petrobras, the festival screens 28new Brazilian features and 21 shorts including ten new features in fictioncompetition (for list, see below).

The festival will alsoscreen Latin premieres of high profile international titles such as JohnMadden's Proof, Atom Egoyan's WhereThe Truth Lies, Stephen Frears' MrsHenderson Presents, Neil Jordan's BreakfastOn Pluto, Luc and Jean-PierreDardenne's L'Enfant, Gus VanSant's Last Days, Jim Jarmusch's BrokenFlowers and The Constant Gardener directed by local hero Fernando Mereilles.

Mereilles is among thefilm-makers expected to attend Rio, accompanied by his stars Ralph Fiennes andRachel Weisz. Among the other scheduled attendees are Gus Van Sant, DannyGlover, William H Macy, Cuba Gooding Jr and Stuart Gordon.

In addition to the regularfestival sections World Panorama, Expectations, Midnight Movies, PremiereBrazil and Premiere Latin America, the festival has introduced several newstrands this year - Dox, dedicated to documentaries from Latin America andabroad; Brasil with a Z, a series of foreign films which take their subjectfrom an outsider's view of Brazilian life and culture; Classical Japanese, acelebration of the 100 years of Shochiku Films; Retrospective Raymond Depardonand Focus Spain.

For the full lineup, see www.festivaldorio.com.br.