By Rebecca Thomas BBC News Online entertainment staff

As an Australian working in the UK, Shane Danielsen - Edinburgh Film Festival's artistic director - takes travelling for his career in his stride.

Yet even he admits to being overwhelmed by the distances he has covered in his first year in the job.

Over the past few months, he has pursued a transcontinental search for the world's best new movies, at times seeing up to seven a day.

It sounds like a dream job but Mr Danielsen is quick to dispel any illusions.

Abouna is just one of the festival's international highlights

"People forget that most of the time I am watching bad movies," he says.

"After six weeks of watching mainly poor features at festivals in Sundance, Rotterdam, Budapest and Berlin - it's not good.

"But the moment you know you have found a great film, it makes it worthwhile."

The cream of his finds make up the 100-plus films at this year's 2002 festival, from 14 to 26 August.

'Renaissance'

Among them, Mr Danielsen has chosen The Son of the Bride from Argentina, Confession and Fate from Turkey, Abouna from Africa, and Buffalo Soldiers and Insomnia from the US.

But, ironically, the road-weary Mr Danielsen believes the highlight of this year's programme is its "uncommonly strong" UK section.

"The festival is committed to having a British strand because it is the UK's major film festival but we are very much slaves to what is around," Mr Danielsen explains.

Samantha Morton's Morvern Callar opens the festival

"There have been lean years for good British cinema but this is definitely not one of them."

He cites All or Nothing, Heartlands, Morvern Callar and The Last Great Wilderness as examples of this excellence.

He is also cautiously optimistic that the often berated UK film industry is once again beginning to show its true potential.

"I loved to think it meant we were in the middle of a small but noticeable creative renaissance," he says.

"If we are in the same position next year I think we could justifiably say that there is a new movement."

Market

If the film festival has an overall aim, it is, says Mr Danielsen, to promote "beautiful and extraordinary films that would otherwise not be seen".

Among the hundreds of visitors to the festival are many international industry executives.

Their numbers have increased yearly with the rise of the festival's profile.

French movie 8 Women, starring Catherine Deneuve, is a European highlight

Mr Danielsen hopes they will this buy even more of the films on show this year, as there are now plenty of potential buyers squeezed into one town to look at films from across Europe and the Americas.

"Most would not get an airing otherwise because of the commercial realities and conservative climate of distribution," he says.

"People don't take the risks, particularly on foreign language films."

Secret

The festival's past distribution successes include The Full Monty and Amores Perros, both of which enjoyed global acclaim.

This year, Mr Danielsen says he is crossing his fingers in particular for Morvern Callar and Out of Control, also made in the UK.

But when it comes to spilling the beans on his choice for the festival highlight - the "surprise" film - he remains tight-lipped.

All he will say is that we will not be disappointed because the movie is "cool" in the Pulp Fiction and LA Confidential sense of the word.

The Edinburgh Film Festival runs from 14 to 26 August.