The Turin Film Festival (Nov 7-15), Italy's leading cutting-edge event, has unveiled a brimming 20th edition line-up, which includes David Cronenberg's Spider, Toy Love by New Zealand director Harry Sinclair, and John Frankenheimer's last film, Path to War.

The festivalwill open with competition title Pumpkin, Anthony Abrams and Adam Larson Broder's feature debut starring Christina Ricci as an ambitious member of a college sorority club.

Other titles in competition include Brazilian director Anna Muylaert's Durval Discos, about an ageing rocker who manages a shop with his mother, UK director Bille Eltringham's This is Not a Love Song and Sri Lanka title Tani Tatuwen Piyabannat by Asoka Handagama.

Two Italian films will screen in competition: director Luca Vendruscolo's Piovono Mucche, a dark comedy set in a centre for the handicapped., and Eccomi Qua, a film by Giacomo Ciarrapico about a child who transforms the life of an aspiring comedian.

Artistic director Stefano della Casa revealed that the budget of this year's event is Euros1.5m, of which Euros1.1m comes from public Italian and European funds, and the rest from private investors such as Kodak and Telepiu, and box office receipts. Last year's box office takings for the festival amounted to an impressive Euros100,000.

Meanwhile, out-of-competition titles include Robert Gudiguian's Cannes picture Marie-Jo Et Ses Deux Amours, and Tod Harrison's The Big Bend, a digital road movie about two old school friends and a girl who cross Texas on a motorbike.

The festival's popular Americana sidebar will screen among others Larry Fessenden's New York-set horror movie, Wendigo, Frankenheimer's portrait of Lyndon B. Johnson, Path to War, Pulp Fiction screenwriter Roger Avary's The Rules of Attraction, and Curtis Harrington's Usher which is bsed on a famous tale by Edgar Allan Poe.

Retrospectives will be dedicated to the works of John Milius, who will attend the festival, John Ford, Brazilian director Julio Bressane and Italy's Gianni Amico.

COMPETITION LINE-UP

Bent Keltoum, Mehdi Charef (France/Tunisia)
Bungalow, Ulrich Kohler (Germany)
Durval Discos, Anna Muylaert (Brazil)
Eccomi Qua, Giacomo Ciarrapico (Italy)
El Leyton (Hasta Que La Muerte Nos Separe), Gonzalo Justiniano (Chile)
Hukkle, Gyorgy Palfi (Hungary)
Les Jours Ou Je N'Existe Pas, Jean-Charles Fitoussi (France)
Piovono Mucche, Luca Vendruscolo (Italy)
Pumpkin, Anthony Abrams and Adam Larson Broder (US)
Satin Rouge, Raja Amari (France/Tunisia)
Tani Tatuwen Piyabannat, Asoka Handagama (Sri Lanka)
This is Not a Love Song, Bille Eltringham (UK)
Toy Love, Harry Sinclair (New Zealand)