In a preliminaryannouncement the 4th Jameson Dublin International Film Festival has confirmedit will open on February 17 with the World Premiere of Paul Mercier's Studs.

A debut feature written anddirected by Mercier and produced by Cúán and Fiach Mac Conghail (alsoproducers of Mercier's three short films) Studsis a feel-good action comedy about an amateur football team and the magicalimpact of a new mysterious manager. The film boasts a stellar Irish castBrendan Gleeson (Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire, Cold Mountain), David Wilmot (King Arthur, Laws of Attraction), Eanna Mac Liam (Onthe Nose, Angela's Ashes) and Liam Carney (Gangs of New York).

Among the other titlesconfirmed for JDIFF 2006 are the Dardennebrothers' Palme d'Or winner,L'Enfant. Capote, featuring PhilipSeymour Hoffman's much-lauded performance as the eponymous writer during hisinvestigation of the killings that inspired his innovative non-fiction novel, In Cold Blood. And Pierce Brosnan's acting and producing turn with The Matador, a black comedy in which heplays a washed-up hitman.

A number of parallel industryevents are being lined up to run alongside the screening programme which lastyear presented over 100 films to an audience of more than 30,000. The festival,which runs over ten days to Feb 26, is programmed by film journalist MichaelDwyer and grant-aided by the Arts Council of Ireland with significantsponsorship from Jameson. Irish home entertainment outlet Chartbusters willsupport a season dedicated to World Cinema.