BERLIN (AFP) ― New releases starring Jude Law and Catherine Deneuve and the world premiere of a picture by embattled Iranian director Jafar Panahi joined the line-up Friday for next month’s 63rd Berlin film festival.

Keeping with a tradition of bringing high-wattage stars together with champions of hard-hitting political cinema, organisers of the “Berlinale” unveiled nine new entries to the Feb. 7 to 17 event.

U.S. iconoclast Steven Soderbergh will screen what he has described as his last film “for a long time,” a thriller about pharmaceuticals and crime “Side Effects.” Law and Catherine Zeta-Jones star as psychiatrists and Rooney Mara (“Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”) as a desperate patient.

French screen icon Deneuve leads in the road movie “On My Way” as the owner of a family restaurant who takes off in her car when she finds herself in financial straits and abandoned by her lover.

Panahi, a filmmaker repeatedly acclaimed at major international festivals for gritty and socially critical movies that are banned in Iran, will present “Closed Curtain,” a film in which he reportedly also appears on screen.

He was arrested for a documentary he tried to make on the unrest following the 2009 election and after being placed under house arrest, he was later sentenced to six years in jail and banned from making more films for 20 years.