Today will see Edge of the Blade by Vincent Perez (which won the Audience Award in Karlovy Vary) opening the 24th edition of the Arras Film Festival, which will offer up a very wide-ranging showcase of 110 films - European movies in particular – all the way through to 12 November. An event which strikes an impressive balance between being popular (45,682 admissions last year, with a number of premieres in the presence of artistic talent), cinephile (featuring works often hailing from countries which rarely enjoy the limelight in French cinemas) and industrial (over 500 professionals and journalists from twenty or so Old Continent countries), the Arras Film Festival is set to shine even brighter this year on account of a guest of honour, Dominique Blanc, who’ll be delivering an acting masterclass, and two high-calibre European filmmakers who are set to deliver masterclasses (whilst also accompanying their latest works which won awards in Venice, Green Border and Me Captain), namely Poland’s Agnieszka Holland and Italy’s Matteo Garrone. Other talented film professionals set to make the journey to Arras include Fanny Ardant, Anaïs Demoustier, Damien Bonnard, Benjamin Lavernhe, Monia Chokri and Laetitia Casta.

In addition to the nine contenders for the Golden Atlas (read our article), which will be assessed by a jury led by Dominik Moll (joined by Lucie Debay, Laurent Capelluto, Solène Rigot and Laurent Poitrenaux) are eight feature films from the Visions de l’Est section: Backwards by Poland’s Jacek Lusinski, Wake Me by Croatia’s Marko Santic, Guardians of the Formula by Serbia’s Dragan Bjelogrlic, Phantom Youth by French-Kosovar director Luána Bajrami, Polish animated film The Peasants by DK and Hugh Welchman, She Came at Night by Czech filmmakers Jan Vejnar and Tomas Pavlicek, Restore Point by their compatriot Robert Hloz, and Photophobia by the Slovakian duo Ivan Ostrochovsky and Pavol Pekarcik.

Likewise worth a mention this year is a Croatia Focus, which includes - in addition to the two afore-mentioned titles - Bosnian Pot by Pavo Marinkovic, Hotel Pula by Andrej Korovljev and Seventh Heaven by Jasna Nanut.

Stealing focus in the European Discoveries section are the Spanish movies 20,000 Species of Bees by Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren and Matria by Alvaro Gago, not to mention Elaha by Germany’s Milena Aboyan, Gondola by fellow German Veit Helmer, Kiddo by Holland’s Zara Dwinger, Munch by Norway’s Henrik M. Dahlsbakken and Scrapper by English director Charlotte Regan. Standing tall in the Great Masters category, meanwhile, are King’s Land by Denmark’s Nikolaj Arcel, The Zone of Interest by England’s Jonathan Glazer and Poor Things by Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos.

It’s a showcase of European cinema in all its diversity, which will also shine a light on French film production, exhibiting more than 20 feature films which are set to screen in premieres, including Borgo by Stéphane Demoustier, The Deep Dark by Mathieu Turi, It's Rainning Men by Caroline Vignal (which is set to close the festival) and the four young talents on the French Perspectives agenda (Vincent Must Die by Stéphan Castang, The Fantastic Three by Michaël Dichter, La tête froide by Stéphane Marchetti and Paternel by Ronan Tronchot).

And that’s without forgetting the World Cinema section (and notably the European co-productions Goodbye Julia by Mohamed Kordofani, Inchallah A Boy by Amjad Al Rasheed, If Only I Could Hibernate by Zoljargal Purevdash and Behind the Mountains by Mohamed Ben Attia), two retrospectives ("Dirty Beasts" and "The Odd Czechs"), special screenings, a young audience selection and, in terms of the professional sidebar, the 17th edition of the Professional Northern Meetings (running 8 to 10 November) and the pitching sessions for the Arras Days Development Grant (on 11 November ), with a focus on several Croatian projects the following day, to boot.