Woody Harrelson and Michael York will be in attendance at this year's Galway Film Fleadh, which will feature more than 60 films. The program will be screened over six days with new Irish work prominent in the lineup and "Nature" as the main theme. Two programs of Paddy Carey's exceptional films, including Yeat's Country and Waves, will be shown, as well as the Greek film Earth and Water, the Iranian The Colour of Paradise, and the classic Days of Heaven by Terence Malick (back in the limelight last year with The Thin Red LIne after a twenty-year absence). Already confirmed are four debut feature films by new Irish directors, including the world premiere of Kevin Liddy's Country.

In Flick, the debut by Fintan Connolly, small-time drug dealer and womaniser Jack Flinter gets in over his head in an effortlessly stylish evocation of the underworld of a very modern Dublin. Saltwater is the debut of the playwright and writer of I Went Down, Conor McPherson. It will receive its first Irish screening after its hugely successful showing at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year. Galway's position as the foremost festival for Irish film continues with competitive programmes of New Irish Shorts, New Irish Animation and New Irish Documentary.

An exceptional programme boasts, among others, Sé Merry Doyle's Alive Alive O, an account of that endangered species, the Dublin street trader, Shimmy Marcus' biopic of cult legend Aidan Walsh -- Master of the Universe, and Steve Woods' Estella, the life and times of the underrated Irish artist Estella Solomon. Also screening is the premiere of Peter Canning's Patrick Carey -- Film-Maker. This timely film celebrates the life and work of the Dublin born cameraman and film-maker who died in 1993.

Films from Iran, Holland, Germany, Greece, UK, and the USA make up a diverse and stimulating program of international films. Highlights are the European premiere of the charming American film Smiling Fish and Goat on Fire, Abbas Kiarostami's The Wind Will Carry Us, Nora Hoppe's The Crossing, and Stephen Frears' High Fidelity. As part of a French strand of films, Clare Denis' Beau Travail and Sam Karman's Kennedy et Moi will be screened.

A strong selection of international documentaries spans subjects as diverse as marijuana and major film icons -- Grass (Canada), a history of recreational use of the drug in the late 20th century, and Barbara Kopple's charming Conversations with Gregory Peck. Long Night's Journey Into Day examines the stories of human suffering behind the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. The Making of a New Empire follows Khozh-Ahmed Noukhaev, to some the leader of the Chechen liberation movement, to others the leader of the Chechen mafia. Kevin MacDonald's One Day in September, the controversial Oscar-winning documentary about the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, gets its first Galway screening.

The Fleadh debate will discuss the future of creative documentary. The EU-backed Fleadh Fair which runs over three days gives Irish and European film-makers a rare opportunity to meet with international producers, financiers and distributors.

Awards