The 9th edition of the Grossmann Festival of Fantasy Film and Wine will start at the local cultural centre tonight with the screening of "Byzantium", a British-Irish fantasy thriller directed by Neil Jordan.

This year the festival will focus on the spaghetti western as well as on the traditional Zombie Parade. It will feature more than 30 feature and 40 short films from all around the world until Saturday.

Apart from film screenings and debates with film-makers, the festival will also feature accompanying events such as exhibitions, concerts and workshops.

Like every year, short films will be shot in the Little Workshop of Horror, while a Zombie Parade will take the streets on Ljutomer on the final day of the festival.

The parade of spooky costumes will be followed by an award ceremony, where awards dubbed Vicious Cats will be presented for best feature film, best short film and lifetime achievement, while Noisy Cat will go to best music documentary.

Since the festival also features a wine programme and a wine competition, best wine selected by the festival guests will be presented the Wine Champion Vicious Cat, to be handed out by the main guest of the wine programme, renowned wine writer, judge and lecturer Darrel Joseph.

The festival, named after Slovenian film pioneer Dr. Karol Grossmann, is a member of the European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation, so a nominee will also be announced for Melies d'Or, the award for best European fantastic short film, to be presented at the end of the annual festival cycle by the federation.

In the past two years the festival attracted around 80 film guests from 12 countries, including many well-known film-makers. This year's guests are Italian actor Franco Nero and director Enzo G. Castellari.