The Donostia-San Sebastian International Film Festival has unveiled its official competition line-up for next month's 51st annual edition (Sept 18-27).

The festival says the predominant theme of the selection is "living in a world replete with contradictions," and highlights the raft of "high-profile emerging directors" on display. More titles are expected to be added to the list before the festival opens its doors next month.

Peter Webber's UK co-production Girl With a Pearl Earring has been selected for competition, and will also line-up for the Altadis-New Director's Award against fellow official competition entries The Station Agent, Tom McCarthy's (USA) Sundance triple prize-winner about three lonely people; Memories Of Murder (Sa-Lin-Eui Chu-Eok) by Bong Joon-ho, based on the true story of the brutal murders of a serial killer in 1980's Korea; and November (Noviembre), the provocative new film from Pellet (El Bola) director Achero Manas (Sp) about a street theatre group.

Other Spanish films in the line-up are In The City (En La Ciudad), director Cesc Gay's harsh portrait of a group of thirty-something friends, and Iciar Bollain's tough domestic abuse drama My Eyes Are Yours (Te Doy Mis Ojos).

Spaniard Gerardo Herrero's multinational co-production The Galindez File (El Misterio Galindez), a political thriller starring Saffron Burrows and Harvey Keitel, will screen out of competition.

Spanish co-productions in competition include French-language Dans Le Rouge Du Couchant from Argentinean director Edgardo Cozarinsky, a tale of three acquaintances set between Paris and Buenos Aires; Fernando Perez's Cuban hit Suite Havana, a mix of documentary and fiction which follows a day-in-the-life of ten ordinary Cubans; and Francisco Lombardi's politically-charged period tale What The Eye Doesn't See (Ojos Que No Ven), a film presented as part of last year's Films In Progress (Cine En Construccion) programme.

Joel Schumacher's Cate Blanchett-starrer Veronica Guerin also features in competition.

Five European productions round out the competition line-up. They are: Per Fly's Inheritance (Arven) (Den-Swe), the second part of the director's trilogy on Danish society set against a dog-eats-dog business world; Alex van Warmerdam's fairytale-like Grimm (Holl), a nightmarish story of an abandoned brother and sister searching for their uncle; Jacques Rivette's love story L'Histoire De Marie Et Julien (Fr-It), starring Emmanuelle Beart and Jerzy Radzivilowicz; Dito Tsintsadze's surreal black comedy Gun-Shy (Schussangst) (Ger); and Jan Schutte's English-language Super Tex (Ger-Holl) about a Holocaust survivor in Amsterdam.