The first edition of the Copenhagen International Film Festival, which unspools in Denmark's capital from August 13-20, will have the highly anticipated feature debut from Jannik Johansen, Stealing Rembrandt, as its opening gala screening.

The full festival programme and the competition films will be announced in late July, but head of programming Michael Soeby has already secured some 100 of the expected 150 films.

Among these are Martin Scorsese's My Voyage To Italy, Aleksandr Sokurov's Russian Ark, Stefano Accorsi's A Journey Called Love, Chen Kaige's Together and XX's Mondays In The Sun along with Cannes jury president Patrice Chereau's Son Frere, which took the director's prize in Berlin.

The festival's main competition will feature 15 new European films, which will evaluated by an international jury of up to seven members. Filmmaker Bille August has already agreed to be the first Danish member.

The Copenhagen International Film Festival will be hosting a reception in Cannes at the Scandinavian Terrace on Sunday May 18 at 17.30 with the attendance of Danish Minister of Culture Brian Mikkelsen.