The prestigious New York Film Festival (NYFF) has unveileda typically diverse and high-wattage line-up for its 43rd edition, with numerous potential US and North American premieres.

The exact status of the premieres remains uncertain until both theToronto International Film Festival announces its complete line-up and thesecretive Telluride programme becomes known when that Colorado festival begins.Both of these events run in early to mid-September and precede the NYFF, whichruns from Sept 23-Oct 9.

The one possible world premiere remains Michel Negroponte's HBOdocumentary Methadonia,which revolves around the treatment of heroin addicts in a methodone clinic.(Negroponte also directed the 1995 award-winning documentary Jupiter's Wife).

There are several potential North American debuts including GeorgeClooney's McCarthy Era drama Good Night And Good Luck, which gets its world premiere at Venicebefore going on to open NYFF

Other North American premieres could well include Avi Mograbi'sIsraeli/French drama Avenge But One Of My Two Eyes, which played out of competition inCannes; Dorota Kedzierzawska's Polish drama I Am; and Patrice Chereau's Gabrielle.

North American audiences could also get their first glimpse at atrio of South Korean entries in New York: Hong Sang-soo's paean to cinema in ATale Of Cinema; ParkChan-wook's final instalment in his revenge trilogy, Sympathy For LadyVengeance; and The President'sLast Bang from ImSang-soo.

The list continues with Bohdan Slama's Czech title SomethingLike Happiness, whichgets it world premiere at San Sebastian; Russian master Aleksandr Sokurov's TheSun, the final episodein his tetrology that focuses on Japan's surrender in the second world war;Philippe Garrel's Regular Lovers; Mitsuo Yanagimachi's Cannes entry Who's Camus Anyway'; and Jean-Paul Civeyrac's Through TheForest.

US premiere candidates include Bennett Miller's Capote starring Philip Seymour Hoffman in a highly-touted role as the American writer Truman Capote ; Michael Winterbottom's comedy TristramShandy: A Cock And Bull Story; Steven Soderbergh's low budget digital excursion Bubble; Neil Jordan's transvestite caper BreakfastOn Pluto, which servesas the NYFF's Centrepiece film; Cristi Puiu's Romanian title The Death Of MrLazarescu; the Dardenne brothers'Palme d'Or-winning L'Enfant (The Child); Lars Von Trier's Manderlay; Hany Abu-Assad's Paradise Now; Hou Hsiao-hsien's Three Times; and Noah Baumbach's The Squid AndThe Whale.

Michael Haneke's Cannes competition success Cache (Hidden) will close this year's festival.

Special screenings include: the Shochiku retrospective TheBeauty Of The Everyday: Japan's Shochiku Company At 110: a restored print of Sam Wood's 1922classic Beyond The Rocks; an illustrated lecture by Adrian Wooten of Graham Greene'scinematic work called Greeneland; Shinya Tsukamoto's Haze; and Noda Hideki's hi-def presentation Nezumi Kozo.

Also featuring as special screenings are Michelangelo Antonioni's ThePassenger, and acollection of experimental works by avant-garde filmmakers entitled ViewsFrom The Avant-Garde.

There are live discussions on media, politics and government, adialogue with Breakfast On Pluto director Neil Jordan, a focus on British actor and comedian SteveCoogan, who stars in Tristram Shandy, as well as a selection of short films.