A line-up of more than 250 features and shorts - including 19 world premieres andseven US premieres - has been announced for Film Independent's 2006 Los AngelesFilm Festival (June 22 to July 2).

David Frankel's comedy The Devil Wears Prada (set for US releaseby 20th Century Fox on June 30) will be the festival's opening night film onJune 22. Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland'sfamily drama Quinceanera(Sony Pictures Classics) will be the centerpiece premiereon June 30. And Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris'Sundance dramatic comedy Little MissSunshine (Fox Searchlight) will close the festival on July 2.

Over its 11-day run, the festival will give audiences access to a "widearray of daring and independent films," said Film Independent executive directorDawn Hudson in a statement. Filmmakers, Hudson added,"will have access to all that Los Angeles has to offer: a sophisticatedarts community, an appreciation for new and original voices, and dedicatedfilmgoers as diverse as the films themselves."
Film Independent said it received more than 4,300 submissions from filmmakersaround the world for this year's festival, 600 more than were received lastyear.

The festival's narrative competition will feature eight films -- six of themgetting their world premieres -- from emerging US filmmakers. Eleven titles,including another six world premieres, will be seen in the documentarycompetition.

The International Showcase section will screen 21 titles, giving North Americanpremieres to Stuart McDonald's off-beat Stranded(from Australia) and Yoon Jong-bin's drama The Unforgiven (SouthKorea), and US premieres to Tizza Coviand Rainer Frimmel's circus story Babooska (Austria/Italy), ZhangMing's study of isolation Before Born (China),Ali Zamani Esmati's childhoodtale The Narrow Alleys (Iran),Bernard Bellefroid's documentary Rwanda, The Hills Speak (Belgium), and Cheikh Ndiaye's sport-centric Wrestling Grounds (France/Senegal).

The Summer Previews section will screen 11 upcoming USindependent releases, among them Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe'sBritish film Brothers of the Head(from USdistributor IFC Films)and, from France, Francois Ozon's Time to Leave (Strand Releasing).

Special event screenings will include showings of Richard Linklater'sanimated sci-fi project A Scanner Darkly(Warner Independent Pictures) and Neil Marshall's British horror film The Descent (Lionsgate).

George Lucas will serve as the festival's guest director, programming a sidebarand hosting a two-day film-maker retreat at his Skywalker Ranch.

Other festival events include a June 24 financing conference, with producerCathy Schulman (Crash) giving the keynote address, and the Kodak Speed Datingprogram, during which the festival's film-makers will get one-on-one meetingswith industry experts.

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