The full line-up for the 59ththLocarno International Film Festival (Aug 2-12) hasbeen unveiled, marked by a boost in US fare underlined by opening film Miami Vice, final night film Little Miss Sunshine and two Sundancetitles in the International Competition.

Actor Willem Dafoe will behonoured with an artistic excellence award while previously announced Leopardof Honour winner Alexander Sokurov will premiere hisdocumentary Elegy OfLife, about cello virtuoso Mistlav Rostropvich.

In his first year at the helm,artistic director Frederic Maire has streamlined thefestival's lineup - the number of titles is down by25% to 170 although the number of screenings remains constant - and abandonedthe human rights and video programmes while boosting the Filmmakers of thePresent sidebar to include a second competitive strand.

"We are presenting thefestival we had planned to present eight months ago," said Maire."Everything has been surprisingly on track."

Locarno's main 21-title International Competition will boast13 world premieres and titles including TheLives Of The Saints, from Chris Cottam andphotographer Rankin, Veronica Chen's Agua, Marc Rechia's Days Of August, Roberta Torre's Mare Nero,Radu Muntean's The Paper Will Be Blue, and, from Cuba,biopic El Benny about musical iconBenny More. The two Sundance titles are THINKFilm's Half Nelson and Stephanie Daly, starring Tilda Swinton.

For the festival's galashowcase Piazza Grande screenings, Maire has secureda raft of titles including the world premiere of SergeiBodrov's anticipated Kazakh epic Nomad, with Kuno Becker and Jason ScottLee, for which The Weinstein Company took US and UK rights at Cannes. Other Piazza titles, which include four worldpremieres, are Carla's List, a Swissdocumentary about the chief war crimes prosecutor and Luganoresident Carla Del Ponte; multi-awarded German Stasithriller The Life Of Others (forwhich Sony Pictures Classics has US rights); Little Miss Sunshine; UK thriller-blackcomedy Severance; Alpine chiller Dead In ThreeDays; Cannes titles The Right Of TheWeakest and Lights In The Dusk;and Jonathan Demme's Neil Young: Heart Of Gold.

Apart from the InternationalCompetition, two Golden Leopards and equal prizes of $25,000 (CHF30,000) will be awarded to the winners of the Filmmakers OfThe Present competitive strand - a 23-film "edgy" section, according to Maire.

As previously announced,Finnish film-maker Aki Kaurismaki is to be honouredwith an extensive retrospective of every film he has directed and acted in,while the Open Doors co-production meetings feature 11 projects and 17 filmsselected from Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.

International CompetitionJury

Barbara Albert

Edo Bertoglio

Antonio Capuano

Emmanuelle Devos

Ann Hui

Peter Rommel

Nobuhiro Suwa

Filmmakers of the Presentcompetition jury

Emmanuelle Antille

Tania Blanich

Hernan Musaluppi

Rafi Pitts

Heidrun Schleef

Piazza Grande

Miami Vice (opening film)

Dir. Michael Mann, US

Die Herbstzeitlosen

Dir. Bettina Oberli, Switzerland, world premiere

Dead in Three Days

Dir: Andreas Prochaska, Austria, world premiere

Lights in the Dusk

Dir: Aki Kaurismaki,Finland/Germany/France

The Life Of Others

Dir. FlorianHenckel-Donnersmarck, Germany, international premiere

Mon Frere Se Marie

Dir. Jean-Stephane Bron,Switzerland/France, world premiere

Carla's List

Dir. Marcel Schupbach, Switzerland, documentary, world premiere.

Neil Young: Heart Of Gold

Dir. Jonathan Demme, documentary, international premiere

L'Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio

Dir. Augostino Ferrente. Italy, documentary, world premiere

Nomad

Dir. SergeiBodrov, Kazakhstan, world premiere

Quale Amore

Dir. Maurizio Sciarra, Italy/Switzerland, world premiere

The Right Of The Weakest

Dir. Lucas Belvaux, France/Belgium

Severance

Dir. Christopher Smith, UK

Un Franco, 14 Pesetas

Dir. Carlos Iglesias, Spain, world premiere

Little Miss Sunshine (final night film)

Dirs. Jonathan Dayton andValerie Faris, US, European premiere

International Competition

Agua

Dir. Veronica Chen,Argentina-France, international premiere

Black Eyed Dog

Dir. Pierre Gang, Canada, world premiere

Body Rice

Hugo Vieira da Silva, Portugal, world premiere

Ca Rend Heureux

Dir. Joachim Lafosse, Belguim/Italy,international premiere

Fireworks Wednesday

Asghar Farhadi, Iran, international premiere

Le Dernier Des Fous

Dir. Laurent Achard, France/Belgium, world premiere

Dies d'Agost

Marc Recha,Spain, world premiere

El Benny

Jorge Luis Sanchez, Cuba/Spain/UK,international premiere

Das Fraulein

Dir. Andrea Staka, Switzerland, world premiere

Bliss

Dir. Sheng Zhimin, China, world premiere

Gefangene

Dir. Iain Dilthey, Germany/Austria, world premiere.

Half Nelson

Dir. Ryan Fleck, USA, international premiere

The Paper Will Be Blue

Dir. Radu Muntean, Romania, world premiere

Jimmy Della Collina

Dir. Enrico Pau, Italy, world premiere

The Lives Of The Saints

Dir. Chris Cottam and Rankin, international premiere

Der Mann Von DerBotschaft

Dir. Dito Tsintsadze, Germany, world premiere

Mare Negro

Dir. Roberto Torre, Italy/France, world premiere

Ellipsis

Dir.Andrei A Eshpai. Russia, world premiere

Don't Look Back

Dir. Kim Youngnam,Korea/Japan, international premiere

Stephanie Daley

Dir. Hilary Brougher, US, international premiere

Suzanne'

Dir. Viviane Candas, France, world premiere