The festival will feature a retrospective of 15 films shot in Technicolor, showing the progress of colour film through time. Among them will be classics such as the Phantom of the Opera, The Adventure of Robin Hood, The African Queen and a Fistful of Dollars.

The festival's main section, dubbed Perspectives, will feature ten films vying for the Kingfisher Prize.

Apart from the Family Film, a story about an average family that faces unexpected developments, the section will also feature the winner of the Sarajevo Film Festival, Mustang by Deniz Gamte Ergüven, a film on the demonisation of female sexuality in the conservative Turkish society.

Also in the running for the Kingfisher is Son of Saul by Laszlo Nemes, which bagged two prizes in Cannes this year. The film is an uncompromising account of life in a Nazi concentration camp.

The most popular section of the festival is however Avantpremieres, which will feature Home, a documentary by Slovenian Metod Pevec and The High Sun, a Slovenian-Croatian-Serbian co-production by Dalibor Matanić.

The section will also include Dheepan, this year's winner of Palme d'Or, by Jacques Audiard and Einstein in Mexico, a film by Peter Greenway.

Festival programme director Simon Popek told the press on Tuesday that European directors seem to be inching closer to the English-speaking markets. Among them is also Joachim Trier, whose Louder than Bombs has attracted an impressive cast.

Film lovers fond of unusual or extravagant films will find something to their taste in one of the other festival sections - Kings and Queens, Panorana of World Cinema and Extravaganza.

Popek labelled as an atypical film The Wolfpack by Crystal Moselle, while Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead by Kiah Roache-Turner will be the culmination of Extravaganza.

The festival will also show three finalists for the LUX prize given out each year by the European Parliament: Mediterranea by Jonas Carpingnano, The Lesson by Kristina Grozeva and Mustang.

LIFFE, running until 22 November, will also feature a list of films for young audiences.