The 19th Warsaw International Film Festival (Oct 2-13) will feature 15 films in its competition programme, a Ventura Pons retrospective and a selection of the newest Polish films as part of the Warsaw Screenings section.

The festival, the country's sole FIAPF-accredited feature film event, will open with Hans-Christian Schmid's Berlinale FIPRESCI-award winner Distant Lights (Lichter) which features not only a Polish story line but also Polish actors. Jan Jakub Kolski's Pornography starring Krzysztof Majchrzak and Adam Ferency will close the festival.

The festival's New Films, New Directors competition section will feature fifteen entries, all first or second features that will be judged by an international jury.

The competition winner will receive the Grand Prix Nescafe and Euros5,000. The competition's local entry is Lukasz Barczyk's Changes, starring Maja Ostaszewska and Jacek Poniedziaek.

The fourth edition of the Warsaw Screenings, to be held Oct 10-12, will present English-subtitled versions of the latest Polish productions to festival programmers from around the world.