Football, starring Helena Bonham Carter, will be a timely highlight at the upcoming British Short Film Festival.

The film is directed by Gaby Dellal, whose credits include a segment of Sky Pictures' Tube Tales and Granada Films' upcoming feature Single Girls Diary. Dellal's short film Toy Boys won the prize for Best British Production at the 1998 edition of the festival.

Sponsored by the BBC, the event will screen films from as far afield as Georgia and Argentina as well as the UK. More than 400 new shorts and videos will screen in all.

Other titles in the line-up include Anno Domini, directed by leading commercials director Jeff Stark and starring Ewan McGregor, and Going Down, directed by Tom Shankland and starring Sienna Guillory and Lee Boardman. Shankland, a graduate of the National Film & Television School, recently directed the short film Bait for FilmFour and BBC TV drama Hearts And Bones.