Movie legend Lord Attenborough is to be guest of honour at this year's Bradford Film Festival.

Festival organisers say they are delighted Lord Attenborough, known affectionately as Dickie, has agreed to attend the event, and they are expecting sell-out crowds for a question-and-answer session with the Oscar-winning director.

The event, on March 7, will be the finale for a retrospective of Lord Attenborough's work which will feature film classics such as Brighton Rock, A Bridge Too Far, Gandhi and Cry Freedom.

Tony Earnshaw, head of festival programming, said: "We are absolutely delighted to get Lord Attenborough - he only confirmed yesterday, so we're still a bit breathless.

"I think that this will be the jewel in the crown of the festival. He doesn't do events like this very often, so we're very honoured.

"He's got such a lot to tell that it should be great. He's worked with everyone from John Wayne to Steve McQueen, and Robert Redford to Noel Coward, James Caan and Lawrence Olivier.

"He's never written his autobiography because he doesn't think he's interesting enough - but we know he is."

The Jurassic Park star and Gandhi director, who has been one of the major figures in the British Film Industry since making his screen debut in 1942, visited Bradford last year to premiere his latest film Grey Owl starring Pierce Brosnan.

The festival, which will run from March 1 to 17, will open with the British premiere of the big-budget Hollywood war movie Enemy At The Gates, which stars Jude Law as a wartime sniper.

It will also feature recently-Oscar-nominated films including The Contender, starring Jeff Bridges, Amores Perros - dubbed as the Mexican Pulp Fiction - and You Can Count On Me.

The festival is hoping to attract the stars of Simon Beaufoy's new movie Blow Dry to Keighley for the film's premiere at Keighley Picture House on March 15.

The festival is also set to court controversy with Craven Images' season of contentious films.