The Warsaw International Film Festival has unveiled the full programme for its 42nd edition, set to run from 9-18 October. The gathering will showcase 190 titles – broken down into 132 features and 58 shorts – across 330 screenings, with 102 films presented as world, international or regional premieres.

Two films will open this year’s edition: Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut, starring Julianne Moore, and Hans Petter Moland’s Growth of the Soil, both premiering at Toronto and San Sebastián. Ten days later, John Trengove’s Toronto Platform entry The Smell of Apples will bring the festival to a close.

The event's core competitions remain at the heart of the programme. The International Competition comprises 15 films, including the European titles What Belongs to Others by Grzegorz Dębowski, which has just premiered in Venice’s Orizzonti; February, Seven Days by Tatjana Moutchnik, set to premiere in San Sebastián’s New Directors strand; The Last Farewell by Koldo Almandoz, selected for San Sebastián’s Special Screenings; Conversation With the Sea by Muayad Alayan, screened in Venice Spotlight; and Jens Sjögren’s black comedy Bloody Men.

A few European flicks will enjoy their world premiere in the section: Kristijonas Vildžiūnas’s Dice-Ching-O-Mat, in which a man trapped inside a mysterious cube must solve a puzzle in order to escape; Thierry Besseling’s Doubt, about a future priest forced to question his vocation after developing feelings for a young man; Linda Olte’s The Child, about a former swimmer tackling her struggle with infertility with the same determination she once applied to sport; and Maciej Sobieszczański’s Through the Wall, inspired by the true story of two political prisoners who fell in love while communicating in Morse code through a prison wall. Joining the world premieres are a new, US-produced film by The Painted Bird’s Václav Marhoul, Confession, set in Stalinist Moscow and starring Rob Lowe, James Franco, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Nick Nolte and Emile Hirsch; Japan’s Mentor by Keisuke Yoshida; and Iran’s The Daughter of Lady Fairy by Alireza Motamedi. The selection is rounded off by Cai Chengjie’s Suzhou Quartet and Yiwen Gong’s Her First Taste, both hailing from China, and the US title Test by Sam McConnell. The Grand Prix comes with PLN 120,000 (approximately €27,500), funded by the Mayor of Warsaw, while the jury will also hand out PLN 10,000 (€2,290) for Best Director and a PLN 5,000 (€1,145) Special Jury Award.

The 1-2 Competition, dedicated to first and second features, likewise comprises 15 titles. Among them are Myrsini Aristidou’s Sundance Audience Award winner Hold Onto Me, Martina Buchelová’s Karlovy Vary Proxima Grand Prix winner Lover, Not a Fighter, Urša Menart’s Sarajevo entry Everything That’s Wrong with You, Félix de Givry’s Cannes Critics’ Week selection Goodbye Cruel World and Luc Knowles’s Málaga entry Hugo 24.

A couple of world premieres are gracing the section: Felix Hassenfratz’s Frieda, about an 11-year-old girl who discovers that her parents have hidden the existence of a sister from her; Simão Cayatte’s The Boatman, following a man released after 16 years in prison who attempts to buy his daughter a piano; Yordan Dimitrov Petkov’s Resonance, intertwining the lives of an older man living in isolation and an ambitious young police officer; Reinis Kalviņš’s The Bog, which begins with the discovery of a boy’s body in a peat bog; Lorin Terezi’s Agia, set in post-communist Albania; and Federico Montero’s Costa Rican-Uruguayan film Men Die Sooner. The section is rounded off by Julia Rogowska’s The Time That Never Came, Eliza Godlewska and Alan Ruczyński’s A Free Woman, Evženie Brabcová’s Backwoods, and the US title The Last Day, directed by Rachel Rose and starring Alicia Vikander. The winner of the 1-2 Competition will receive PLN 10,000.

The Documentary Competition also consists of 15 titles, including Jonas Spriestersbach’s Meanwhile in Namibia, Filip Grujić and Aleksa Borković’s Yugo Goes to America, and Regina Schilling’s Ingeborg Bachmann – Someone Who Was Once Me. The winner will receive PLN 5,000. The Short Film Competition, meanwhile, comprises 26 titles across four programmes, with the festival retaining its Academy Award-qualifying status.

Three films have been selected as this year’s Centrepieces: Danny Boyle’s Ink, Paul Greengrass’s The Uprising and Paolo Strippoli’s The Spiral. Other sections, such as Confrontations, Cinema in the Clouds, Animus. Cinema of Values and the Special Screenings, will bring along a wide number of movies previously seen at major international festivals.