CHENNAI: “The Kid With a Bike” directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, which bagged the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes film festival earlier this year, is expected to be the highlight of the ninth Chennai International Film Festival to be held between December 14 and 22.

About 154 films from 44 countries, including 12 Tamil films such as national award-winning ‘Aadukalam’, Sakthivelu's Maidhanam and Thoonganagarama, will be screened during the week-long event.

Organized by the Indo Cine Appreciation Foundation ( ICAF ), the festival will also screen films presented at the Cannes and Berlin film festivals. Though the focus is on movies from France, Germany, Iran, Egypt and Hungary, there will be a special retrospective on films by Hou Hsao Hsien, Taiwanese award winning director and Finland’s Aki Kaurismaki, revered on the world cinema circuit.

While the star-studded list of foreign directors attending the meet is yet to be confirmed, award-winning director and producer Shekhar Kapur will be the chief guest. Aimed at providing a common platform for directors to express their art and to promote understanding and appreciation of films across the world, the festival will include special panel discussions with eminent personalities every afternoon.

“The discussions can be attended by students, film fans, critics, film personalities or foreign delegates. It will give them a chance to interact with personalities like film critics Madhan, Bharadwaj Rangan and Hariharan of LV Prasad Institute,” said actor Suhasini Maniratnam, a member of the advisory committee.

A special 'Red Carpet' event, will see the seven best films screened specially for the film fraternity at Inox at 7.30pm. Twelve films will be screened every day at Sathyam Cinemas, Inox, Woodlands Symphony and the South Indian Film Chamber of commerce auditorium. Tickets for the entire festival are priced at Rs 500 for general public and Rs 300 for students and members of the film fraternity and institute.