The Stockholm International Film Festival has unveiled itsfull line-up for this year's event (Nov 18-28).

The 15th anniversary of the festival sees a strong programmeconsisting of 170 films from more than 40 nations - divided into 14 sections.

Half of the films in this year's competition for directorsmaking their first, second or third films, are directed by women, and twothirds are the work of debutants.

Maria Blom incarnates this statistic with her debut Untitled Maria Blom Project (Masjavlar).Produced by Lars Jonsson of Memfis Film, the highly-anticipated drama-comedyabout three sisters marks the first Swedish film in the history of thissection.

Other competing films include Garden State by Zach Braff, Somersaultby Cate Shortland and Norwegian gangster movie Uno by Aksel Hennie.

This year's Spotlight category is devoted to Japanese Anime.The section features films like Satoshi Kon's Tokyo Godfathers and Ghost InThe Shell 2:

Innocence byMamoru Oshii.

The Northern Lights section focuses on films from the Nordicand Baltic countries. This section includes films such as this year's Finnishentry to the Oscars, Producing Adultsby Aleksi Salmenperä, and Danish Paprika Steen's directorial debut drama Aftermath.

As announced earlier, Woody Allen's Melinda And Melinda will open the event, while Jean-Pierre Jeunet'slove story A Very Long Engagementwill close the festival.

Oliver Stone is the recipient of this year's StockholmLifetime Achievement Award. Stone has personally selected five films for theStone by Stone line-up, namely Heaven AndEarth, Natural Born Killers, Born On The Fourth Of July, JFK and Nixon. Oliver Stone's latest film, Alexander, which has its Europeanpremiere at the festival, will also be screened.

The Stockholm Festival celebrates its 15th edition byestablishing the Stockholm Visionary Award in order to encourage the work,visions and achievements of contemporary filmmakers. This year's winner of theaward is Todd Solondz, whose latest film Palindromesgets its Nordic premiere at the festival.

STOCKHOLM XV COMPETITION

Butterfly by YanYan Mak (Hong Kong)
Chrystal by Ray McKinnon (USA)
CQ2 (Seek You Too) by Carole Laure(Canada/France)
Don't Move by Sergio Castellitto(Italy)
Garden State by Zach Braff (USA)
Hotel by Jessica Hausner(Austria/Gemany)
Innocence by Lucile Hadzihalilovic(France)
L'esquive by Abdel Kechiche (France)
Look At Me by Agnès Jaoui (France)
Love In Thoughts by Achim von Borries(Germany)
Untitled Maria Blom Project(Masjavlar) by Maria Blom (Sweden)
Mean Creek by Jacob Aaron Estes (USA)
Omagh by Pete Travis (Ireland)
Primer by Shane Carruth (USA)
Somersault by Cate Shortland(Australia)
Steve + Sky by Felix van Groeningen(Belgium)
The Woodsman by Nicole Kassell (USA)
Uno by Aksel Hennie (Norway)