HansSteinbichler's second feature Winter Journey (Winterreise) will be theopening film of this year's Munich Filmfest (July15-22) just a week after the film had has its world premiere in Karlovy Vary's InternationalCompetition.

Thiswill be a kind of homecoming for Steinbichler whosedebut Hierankl,which also starred Bavarian actor Josef Bierbichler,was shown in Munich in 2003 when it won theGerman Film Promotion Award for Best Direction.

Withless than a month to go, festival director Andreas Stroehlhas revealed some of the films programmed for this year's edition. They includeSteven Soderbergh's Bubble, Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly, Marco Bellocchio's TheWedding Director (Il Regista DiMatrimoni), Takeshi Kitano's Takeshis, Terry Gilliam's Tideland, DeepaMehta's Water, Rudolf Thome's Rauchzeichen, Manoel de Oliveira'sEspelho Magico, AbelFerrara's Mary and Terry Zwigoff's Art SchoolConfidential as well as featuredebuts including Jason Reitman's Thank You For Smoking, Birgit Moeller's Valerie, Dominique Lienhard's Muetter, andSarah Watt's Look Both Ways.

Germany'ssecond largest festival will also have European premieres of Robert Towne's Ask The Dust and Todd Robinson's Lonely Hearts and world premieres of Mohsen Makhmalbaf's latest film Scream Of The Ants and Vera Tschechowa's documentary Salam Cinema - The Makhmalbafs and Their Films aspart of the retrospective dedicated to the MakhmalbafFilm House.

TheKinderfilmfest also has two world premieres: Danielle Proskar'sdebut Karo Und Der Liebe Gott and Christian Schwochow's Marta And Her Flying Grandfather.

Inaddition, as part of a programme of fringe events during the Filmfest week, TheLives Of Others director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and hislead actor Ulrich Muehe will be presented with theGerman Cinema Peace Prize (The Bridge) at a gala ceremony featuring formerGerman Foreign Minister Hans Dietrich Genscher.