When details were first announced of the inaugural European Film Festival Estoril (November 8-17) in Portugal, predictably some on the festival circuit were unenthusiastic about another autumn date. Nonetheless, under the direction of Portugal's best-known producer, Paulo Branco, the new event looks set to attract plenty of big-names.

Branco was first sounded out about taking the reins of the festival in the spring. The Gemini Films and Alma Films boss is a busy man. As he puts it: "I produce films in Lisbon and Paris, I have cinemas in Portugal, I am a distributor and a world sales agent." Even so, Branco agreed to become director. Using his "30 years of contacts", he has cajoled such luminaries as Pedro Almodovar, US novelist Don DeLillo and fashion designer Emmanuel Ungaro into turning up in the Portuguese resort famous for its casino, its tennis tournament and its motorsports circuit.

The new festival does not have deep pockets. Its budget is $1.7m. Branco freely admits the world is full of film festivals, but says he was determined to give the event its own unique identity. One key aim is to celebrate cinema as art: "We can still believe that cinema is an artistic expression that can resist the pressures of standardisation."

The jury includes Spanish painter Miguel Barcelo, Angolan writer and anthropologist Ruy Duarte de Carvalho, French theatre and opera director Stephane Braunschweig and DeLillo. Branco was determined to attract heavyweights and seems to have succeeded. "For the first year of a festival that is not known, I think personal contacts are very important."

There won't be a market but during the festival, there will be a three-day meeting of 40 leading European distributors (November 9-11) under the banner of Europa Distribution. Attendees will include Wild Bunch, Artificial Eye from the UK, Wanda Vision from Spain, A Film from Benelux, and Bim and Lucky Red from Italy. Branco also envisages that Estoril will become an important meeting point for Portuguese distributors.

The festival will screen Almodovar and David Lynch retrospectives. The latter will include not only Lynch's features, but his shorts, web-based work, advertisements, and animation and even documentaries about him.

One problem facing Branco is that he produces so many of Portugal's films, and he will not allow his own movies to be shown in competition.

Nonetheless, he is happy with the films he and his selection committee (including London Film School director Ben Gibson) have secured since starting work on the festival in May. They include the world premieres of two French films: Alain Raoust's L'ete Indien and Cedric Anger's Le Tueur, which will both screen in competition. Other titles in competition include Lenny Abrahamson's Garage, Mijke De Jong's Tussenstand, Aleksei Balabanov's Cargo 200 and Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi's Actrices.

Branco remains as prolific a producer as ever. Recent projects include Paul Auster's The Inner Life Of Martin Frost and Christophe Honore's Les Chansons D'Amour. Branco is also producing Jerzy Skolimowski's romantic drama Four Weeks With Anna, which will be shooting in Poland at the same time as the event in Portugal. But, no, he won't miss his own festival.