MADRID (AFP) - British director Michael Winterbottom's new movie "Genova", a ghost story starring Colin Firth, will compete for the top prize at the San Sebastian film festival in September, the organisers said Thursday.

It is Winterbottom's third time in the official selection at the festival, after the controversial "9 Songs" in 2004 and "A Cock and Bull Story" in 2005.

The film, which was shot mostly in the Italian city of Genoa, is about a man, Firth, who moves to Italy to start a new life with his two daughters after their mother dies.

"Genova" is Winterbottom's first production since "A Mighty Heart" in 2007, about the wife of murdered American journalist Daniel Pearl, who was abducted and beheaded by extremists in Pakistan in 2002.

The 56th edition of the San Sebastian festival, the oldest and most prestigious in the Spanish-speaking world, takes place from September 18 to 27 in the city in northern Spain.

Other internationally acclaimed directors who will be competing for the top Golden Shell award are Japan's Hirokazu Kore-eda, who is presenting "Aruitemo, Aruitemo" ("Still Walking"), a family drama, and Spain's Oscar nominee Javier Fesser with "Camino", his third feature film.

Iranian director Samira Makhmalbaf, a two-time winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes, will compete with her fourth feature film "Two-Legged Horse."

She is the sister of Hana Makhmalbaf, whose film "Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame" won the Special Jury Prize at San Sebastian in 2007, and daughter of filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, co-screenwriter of "Two-Legged Horse."

Six people were injured in an attack while shooting the film in Afghanistan in May 2007, the organisers said.

Turkish director Yesim Ustaoglu, a prizewinner at several film festivals, and Spanish feature film debutante Belen Macias are also among the contenders for the Golden Shell that were announced by the organisers Thursday.

Last month, the organisers released the first list of seven other films for the competition.

They are works by Argentina's Daniel Burman, France's Christophe Honore, Kim Ki-duk of South Korea, Palestinian Rashid Masharawi, Spain's Jaime Rosales, American Courtney Hunt, winner of the Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance film festival, and Denmark's Kristian Levring, one of the creators of the Dogme 95 movement.

The festival will also feature retrospectives of Japanese post-war film noir and of the comedies of 93-year-old Italian filmmaker Mario Monicelli.

Last year's Golden Shell for best film went to Hong Kong-born director Wayne Wang's "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers."

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