More than 109 films will play in four city-centre cinemas during the 5th Jameson International Film Festival in Dublin.
The programme for the festival, which will run from February 16th to February 25th, was unveiled at a reception in the Market Bar in Dublin last night.
Director John Carney, whose low-budget drama Oncewon the audience award at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival just five days ago, clearly cherished the invitation to launch the event.
"It is funny that I find myself doing this," he said. "But I have had films in the old Dublin Film Festival before. I know really I have been asked to do this because I have won this award, but I like to tell myself I was asked because I am an interesting young film-maker who has had a few films in the festival down through the years."
Once, which stars Glen Hansard of rock band The Frames as a busker romancing a Czech immigrant, is just one of the festival's features.
Other highlights include the European premiere of Amy Berg's controversial Deliver Us From Evil, a documentary examining the Catholic Church's response to accusations of paedophilia against Limerick-born priest Fr Oliver O'Grady.
On a lighter - if more apocalyptic - note, Cillian Murphy, Ireland's fastest-rising star, will be seen in Sunshine, a science fiction tale uniting the Cork actor with Danny Boyle, his director on the zombie drama 28 Days Later. There are new features from such acclaimed directors as Werner Herzog, Shane Meadows and Lars von Trier.
The festival will open with a screening of Jindabyne,an Australian film by Ray Lawrence, the director of the acclaimed Lantana. Gabriel Byrne, the movie's star, is just one of several celebrities turning up for public interviews and workshops.
For the first time a handful of lifetime achievement awards are being handed out and an audience award for favourite feature will be inaugurated.
"It has become a cliche in the arts world to describe every edition of every festival as being bigger and better than ever before," Michael Dwyer, the festival's director, said.
"However, I firmly believe that this festival programme fulfils that description on both counts. It is bigger, with 109 feature films and over 20 short films spread across 10 hectic days and nights, and the quality threshold is higher than ever."
Mr Dwyer, also this newspaper's film critic, is standing down as director this year after five successful years at the helm.
