Theo Angelopoulos is to preside over the first Copenhagen International Film Festival's five-strong jury, which so far also includes Sweden's Jan Troell and Denmark's Bille August.

The festival's awards, The Golden Swans, will be given to the best film, director, actress, actor, script and cinematography. In addition to the jury prizes, the festival will be handing out a Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as a number of honorary prizes.

The event's first edition, which runs from August 13-20, features a main competition for 14 new European films as well as ten other sections, including Nordic View, Focus on Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Spain), New Neighbours, Hollywood Nights, The Other America, Orient Express, African Explosions, War Zones and Secrets of the Great Masters.

"All our fears have been put to shame," festival manager Janne Giese told press on Thursday, "we had been worried that it would be very difficult to convince people to let us show their films, but this hasn't been the case even though this is the first time we do it. This is most likely because we have done it at the right time, where there has been so much focus on Danish film in general."

The festival will announce its full line-up in a couple of weeks, but a among the already confirmed titles are Lucas Belvaux's Belgian The Trilogy (La Trilogie), Yurksel Yavuz's German A Little Bit Of Freedom (Kleine Freiheit), Antonio Hernandez's Spanish The City Of No Limits (En La Ciudad Sin Limites), as well as Franco Zeffirelli's Callas Forever starring Fanny Ardant, Jeremy Irons and Joan Plowright. Straight from Cannes comes Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Turkish Uzak and Siddiq Barmak's Afghan Osama.

As previously reported, a number of local Danish films will also have their world premiere at the festival. These include Jannik Johansen's crime-comedy Stealing Rembrandt and Torben Skjoedt Jensen's drama The Tenth Muse. The are now joined by Jesper W. Nielsen's highly anticipated Bouncer, as well as Peter Ringgaard's comedy Turn Right By The Yellow Dog.