The festival will open with an address by Piran Mayor Peter Bossman and a documentary about Slovenian punk rocker Pero Lovšin at the Tartini Theatre.

France will be the country in focus of the festival, which aims to bring quality European film closer to Slovenian film lovers.

Admission-free screenings of European films made over the past year will take place at three locations in Piran and Portorož.

Cold War by Pawel Pawlikowski, Spoor by Agnieszka Holland, Zama by Lucrecia Martel, Under the Tree by Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson and Faces Places, a documentary by Agnes Varda will be among the films competing for best film and for best director of photography.

The guest of honour will be Icelandic director and producer Friderik Thor Fridriksson, whose Children of Nature (1991) was nominated for an Oscar and received the European Film Award. He will be honoured today with the festival's award for contribution to European film.

Several films for children and the youth, as well as music documentaries, including about Mick Ronson and David Bowie, Maria Callas and Sex Pistols, will be screened.

A meeting of the Art Cinema Netowrk and Folkets Bio, the Slovenian and Swedish national organisations promoting quality film and film education, is scheduled for Friday.