Organizers of the Sydney Film Festival have announced the line-up of the movies participating at this year’s festivities, which will kick off with the Australian premiere of Cate Blanchett and Eric Bana’s thriller film, ‘Hanna’.

The film directed by Joe Wright, who also helmed ‘Atonement’ featuring English actress Keira Knightly, is a story about a father played by Eric Bana who grommed his daughter, Hannah played by Saoirse Ronan to be an assassin.

"Of course we're very excited to be opening with Hanna, the new film by Joe Wright and to have Sydney Film Festival's patron Cate Blanchett on the red carpet for our opening night event," Festival director Clare Stewart was quoted by the Australian Associated Press as she made the announcement of the festival’s official program launch in Sydney.

The festival which is scheduled from June 8 to 19 will feature 29 Australian productions among the 161 titles participating in the event, including two Australian features -- Sleeping Beauty by Julia Leigh and Toomelah by Ivan Sen.

The festival director said, according to The Sydney Morning Herald that this is the fourth year for the official competition for highly selected films. Twelve pictures were selected to compete for $60,000 prize and the films are chosen for their quality saying they are "really showing its stripes". Stewart said that Sleeping Beauty and Toomelah represent films that are "just a touch of the quality of films on offer in that section".

"I think it's very important to be really showing how we're earning those stripes and that (it's) a significant acknowledge and really pays tribute to the industry and culture of our city," she said.

The 12 films in Sydney Film Festival's official competition are the following, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

- 'Sleeping Beauty' by Julia Leigh (Australia)

- 'Toomelah' by Ivan Sen (Australia)

- 'The Tree of Life' by Terrence Malick (USA)

- 'Take Shelter' by Jeff Nichols (USA)

- 'A Separation' by Asghar Farhadi (Iran)

- 'The Forgiveness of Blood' by Joshua Marston (USA, Albania, Denmark, Italy)

- 'Amador' by Fernando Leon de Aranoa (Spain)

- 'Target' by Alexander Zeldovich (Russia, Germany)

-' Cairo 678' by Mohamed Diab (Egypt)

- 'Attenberg' by Athina Rachel Tsangari (Greece)

- 'The Future' by Miranda July (USA, Germany)

- 'Norwegian Wood' directed by Tran Anh Hung (Japan)