Only two days remain before the start of the 13th Sofia International Film Festival. Taking place in 2009 from March 5 to 15, the event is drawing more than 200 international guests to Bulgaria, among whom figure director Wim Wenders, the Istanbul-based ethno-jazz-electronic group Baba Zula, actor and Monty Python founder Michael Palin and the esoteric French composer-director-artist Siegfried.

At the festival's opening on March 5 at NDK (National Palace of Culture), director Georgi Djulgerov's most recent film Козелът (Kozelut / The Goat), based on a novella by Yordan Yovkov, will premier. Also that evening, a new component to the film festival will be announced – a photography competition open to the public, with the theme being announced at the opening ceremony.

(Photographs can be submitted to fotokonkurs@dnes.bg from March 6 to 13; the winner will be announced before the projection on March 15 of Wenders' most recent film, Palermo Shooting. The photographers of the 20 best frames will be presented to Wenders and his wife, Donata Wenders, and the winner will receive a weekend for two in Prague.)

Козелът, in addition to its premiere at SIFF, is also competing in the Bulgarian competition programme, where it joins films like 15, an episodic film by various directors; Дзифт/Dzift, by Yavor Gurdev; and Единствената история, която Хемингуей не описа / A Farewell to Hemingway, by Svetoslav Ovcharov.

Others of the 90 feature films, 40 documentaries and 60 short films being screened at SIFF fall into the categories Balkan Competition (with titles like Za vedno / Forever, by Damjan Kozole; or Diorthosi/Correction, by Thanos Anastopoulos); International Competition (Sonbahar / Autumn, by Özcan Alper; Zamin-é mohkam / The Firm Land, by Chapour Haghighat; or El Amanecer de un sueño, by Freddy Mas Franqueza); Pavel Štingl Documentary Programme (Mír jejich dusím / May They Rest in Peace; Pozdrav ze země, kde včera znamenalo zítra / Greetings from the Land Where Yesterday Meant Tomorrow; or Jakou řečí mluví Pán Bůh?? / What Language Does God Speak??); Siegfried (Ada; Kinogamma Part One: East; Kinogamma Part Two: Far East; Louise (Take 2); and Sansa); and Galas and Avant-Premiers (Vals Im Bashir / Waltz with Bashir, by Ari Folman; Slumdog Millionaire, by Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan; or Milk, by Gus Van Sant.

The full programme can be found on the Sofia Film Fest's website.

Rumour has it, as well, that actor Colin Farrell will be present at the festival to present In Bruges, the 2008 film in which he played a hitman-in-hiding.

Confirmed special appearances include Palin, who, on March 8, will be conferred with the Sofia Award before the screening of Life of Brian; Wenders, whose Palermo Shooting will close the Sofia edition of the festival on March 15; and Siegfried, who, in partnership with the French Institute, will give a concert and present an exhibition of his artwork.

This year's jury is comprised of Hungarian director János Szász, Israeli producer and director Doron Eran, American-Bulgarian actor Momchil Karamitev, Bulgarian journalist and documentary film director Elena Yoncheva, and Serbian director Stefan Arsenijević.

Outside of the event's official dates, additional film programmes will be presented in Bourgas, Plovdiv and Sofia, from March 16 to 22.