Pakistan's Kara Film Festival is introducing cash prizes forthe first time this year, including a $3,500 prize for best feature.

The sixth edition of thefestival, which takes place in Karachi December 7-17, will screen 170 films from 37countries, including 40 features, 34 documentaries and 100 short films. A cashprize of $2,000 will be awarded to the best documentary while the bestlive-action short and animated short will each receive $1,000.

According to festivaldirector Hasan Zaidi, cash prizes were not available in the past due tofinancial constraints. However, this year's event is being sponsored by cell phonecompany Mobilink.

Highlights of the programmeinclude Ken Loach's Palme d'Or winner TheWind That Shakes The Barley, Berlin Silver Bear winner The Road To Guantanamo, Alfonso Cuaron's Children Of Men and Pakistani smash hit Majajan (Moody).

Tanuja Chandra's US-Indianco-production, Hope And A Little Sugar,will open the festival while the closing film is Vishal Bharadwaj's Omkara, an Indian version of Othello set in a village in UttarPradesh.

The festival will also featuretributes to Francois Truffaut, Iranian director Jafar Panahi andPakistan-British director Jamil Dehlavi.