Theinaugural HatcH Audiovisual Arts Festival in Bozeman, Montana, will featureadvance previews of John Dahl's The Great Raid and RickSchroder's directorial debut Black Cloud when it runs from Sept9-12.

Miramaxis scheduled to release The Great Raid, a second world war POW drama starringBenjamin Bratt and James Franco, on Dec 2. Black Cloud is a Native AmericanOlympic boxing saga and stars Nathaniel Arcand.

Both pictures will playout of competition and organisers are expected to unveil two more premieresshortly.

Jeff Bridges will presentPeter Fonda with the festival's signature Gary Cooper award and thefestival will showcase Fonda's work and his selected picture, Ulee'sGold.

HatcH is conceived as adynamic mentoring event for new filmmakers and other artists, with an eclecticline-up of creative events that includes screenings, panel discussions andworkshops.

Twenty finalist studentfilms from 44 film schools representing Asia, Europe, Australia, South Americaand North America, will play in competition.

Jurypanel members and special guests are expected to include Joseph Fiennes,Michael Keaton and What Dreams May Come producer Barnet Bain.

'In our premiereouting, we have aimed to deliver both excellence and unpredictability, free ofthe pressure, expectation and hype which pervades most festivals,'festival chair Penny Ronning said in a statement.

'Combinethis celebration of all the cultural offerings in film, food and music with therugged elegance and extraordinary beauty of Montana, and we think we'veprovided a perfect environment in which to experience the power of the arts andpure artistic energy.'