Competing in the best film category is Polish director Katarzyna Klimkiewicz with her 22 minute dramatic film Hanoi-Warszawa (Kino Polska TV (www.kinopolska.pl ).

Also competing are Arena (Dir. João Salaviza, Portugal) - a winner of the Short Film Palme D'Or at the 2009 Cannes Festival, The Cow Who Wanted To Be A Hamburger (Dir. Bill Plympton, USA), Capucine (Dir. Luis Nieto, France/Japan) Things We Leave Behind (Dir. Andrew Brand, UK), and Jenny and the Worm (Dir. Ian Clark, UK).

The awards ceremony on 27 November will also include the presentation of a Lifetime Achievement Award to the legendary Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi.

Festival director Witold Kon said, "We're delighted that we had such an amazing response to the awards with more than 800 films submitted. It was a difficult task to choose the nominees as the quality of independent filmmaking is at an all time high."