And all booking orders will be date-stamped and processed according to the time they are received, organisers promise. This will hopefully stamp out a nagging problem which has disillusioned film fans in the past - the unavailability of tickets, no matter how early applications were sent in.

Because rules governing the screening of films for festivals stipulate a maximum of two screenings, tickets are a scarce commodity.

This year's event will celebrate the centenary of cinema with a fascinating selection of local archive footage - such as Journey to the Yellow Land, a 1932 French documentary which follows an overland journey to China in a Citroen car, or Half a Century in Hong Kong, comprising early footage of the territory, newsreel sequences of the fall of Hong Kong and a short called The Liberation of Hong Kong.

Many of these restored gems are early images shot by Westerners and are presented in English - unlike the rare showing of Bruce Lee's The Kid, shot when the kung fu star was nine years old, which lacks subtitles. Bruce Lee fans should take note, however, the festival also presents the first showing of The Orphan since its original release 30 years ago.

His last Hong Kong film before seeking fame and fortune in America, The Orphan casts Lee as a teenage delinquent and has been restored from the original negatives stored in London's Rank Laboratories. This one, thankfully, is subtitled.

But the 19th Hong Kong Film Festival, compiled by Law Kar (Hong Kong films), Wong Ain-ling (Asian movies) and Li Cheuk-to (World cinema) will feature many magical, mainstream moments - along with obscure works from Mongolia, Macedonia, Cambodia and Algeria.

One of the staples of the programme is a nine-film tribute to Sri Lankan film-maker Lester James and his wife and editor, Sumitra Peries, and there is also a three-film salute to British director Ken Loach.

Another new feature is a 13-film section devoted to directorial debuts, which includes Boaz Yakin's stirring Fresh, about a 12-year-old coping with America's inner-city crime wave; Clerks, the sensation of last year's Sundance Film Festival, directed by Kevin Smith; and Before the Rain, directed by Milcho Manchevski.

Meanwhile, The Zone is dedicated to confrontational film-making, and features the disturbingly violent Clean, Shaven among six controversial entries.

Once again, the documentary section is one of the strongest in the programme, featuring Bosna!, shot in the Sarajevo war zone; and Hoop Dreams, the critically lauded documentary shot over four painstaking years about two inner-city Chicago kids who hope to make it into the NBA. There's also the Category III Crumb, about eccentric artist Robert Crumb, creator of Fritz the Cat, among other things. Gala presentations include the Australian comedy Muriel's Wedding, the erotic Exotica (both of which will be released theatrically) and the Kiwi sensation Heavenly Creatures.

The 19th International Hong Kong Film Festival will close on April 22 with the much-anticipated drama One and a Half, directed by Lawrence Ah Mon (Gangs, Queen of Temple Street ) and starring Zhang Fengyi. The second finale will be the Russian film Burnt by the Sun, directed by Nikita Mikhalkov. There are five venues - the Arts Centre, the Cultural Centre, City Hall, the Space Museum and Sai Wan Ho Civic Centre - and tickets have been fixed at $42. The festival also promises to bring several of the film-makers to Hong Kong to present their work, including Lester James and Sumitra Peries, along with Jiang Wen, director of the opening film, In The Heat of the Sun.

In fact, the only sour note in the proceedings is the way the festival has presented Zhang Yuan's documentary, The Square.

ZHANG'S film Beijing Bastards was pulled from the festival last year (along with eight other Chinese films) after the mainland authorities protested the inclusion of this banned film - and Zhang was later put on a blacklist of directors in China, issued by the Ministry of Film, Television and Culture in an attempt to stop the film-maker from working in China again.

Urban Council officials refused to state whether The Square, about everyday life in Tiananmen Square, had been approved by Chinese censors, saying Zhang's ban was 'totally immaterial' to their selection process. The Square is a completely different film to Beijing Bastards, said Mr Vincent Chow, chairman of Urbco's Cultural Activities Sub-Committee. 'Zhang's ban was widely reported, but we cannot verify that it was true,' he said.

However, The Square is the only film in the festival's programme not to denote country of origin - the other two productions from the mainland clearly indicate they were made in China. 'As long as the Urban Council knew this was a film from China, that was enough for us,' said Mr Lo Tak-sing, senior manager of the Festivals Office. After repeated questioning, Mr Lo said Urbco might possibly add the missing paragraph back in.

Obviously, the Urban Council expects trouble on this front, but dropping off the country of origin is hardly going to stop vociferous protests from the mainland. Hopefully the festival will not be overshadowed by political manoeuvrings - for the second year in a row - and film fans can expect a trouble-free Easter, watching some of the finest films the world has produced over the last two years.