IN THESE frugal and troubled times, Audrey Hepburn's approach to fine jewellery in Breakfast at Tiffany's is remarkably prescient: look but don't buy. Apt then that cinema's most glamorous window shopper is to receive a major retrospective as part of next year's Glasgow Film Festival.

A bumper selection of Hepburn movies will appear alongside a series of films marking the centenary of Errol Flynn's birth and a celebration of contemporary Mexican cinema, a country whose directors have recently given us such startling visions as Pan's Labyrinth and Children Of Men.

The festival, which runs from February 12 to 22, will screen 10 of Hepburn's films, spanning her career from her Oscar-winning turn in Roman Holiday to one of her final roles opposite Sean Connery in Robin And Marion. Many of the films are seldom seen in the cinema due to the rarity of the prints.

Allan Hunter, co-director of the festival, said the allure of the actress is as strong today as it was 60 years ago when she was making the likes of Funny Face, also in the retrospective, alongside Fred Astaire.

"She is evergreen," he said. "Her image is absolutely everywhere these days, from handbags to posters. She's a great 1950s icon. There's something about the fact that as the world tumbles into misery, people are looking for escapism and romance, Audrey has an elegance that offers a place you want to escape to on a grey February."

The Errol Flynn centenary continues the GFF tradition of marking the 100th birthday of some of cinema's greats. John Wayne and Bette Davis have previously been honoured.

The festival will screen four of his most famous films: Captain Blood, The Sea Hawk, The Private Lives Of Elizabeth And Essex, and his iconic turn in The Adventures Of Robin Hood.

"We're just going to concentrate on the big swashbucklers," said Hunter. "That's where his great legacy lies. He did other things but a lot of it wasn't that good, to be honest. At his peak, he made up to four movies a year. And because his star was at its height in the 1940s, he made his fair share of war films, usually with Ronald Reagan at his side, with the Nazis on the other."

With the festival still receiving entries until the end of October, the complete programme is still to be finalised. Hunter is cryptic about the premieres he hopes to have for February.

"There is one major, eagerly-anticipated Scottish feature that we would love to open with," he said. "But it depends on what happens with it in terms of other festivals, particularly Berlin."

He is also chasing another major Hollywood film, directed by an Oscar-winning actor and director.

One contemporary strand, however, that can be revealed is a celebration of Mexican cinema. With the likes of Alfonso Cuaron, Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu directing critically acclaimed films as Y Tu Mama Tambien, Hellboy, and 21 Grams respectively, the central American country has suddenly become a hotbed of cinema talent.

"It's weird. All of a sudden there are a lot of world-class Mexican film makers out there," said Hunter. "This is an excuse to look at what else is going on in Mexican cinema. Not a great deal of Mexican films get into distribution in the UK. I don't think that's a reflection of whether they are good or not, it's just that distributors aren't as keen to take a chance on them. So it's a chance to look at who their contemporaries are."

Part of the Mexican programvme will include Desierto Adentro, the new film from writer-director Rodrigo Pla, whose La Zona is currently in cinemas.

Next year will mark the Glasgow Film Festival's fifth birthday. This year's festival, which featured UK premieres of The Spiderwick Chronicles, The Bank Job and Lars And The Real Girl, sold more than 20,000 tickets, making it the fastest growing film festival in the UK. In 2006 it sold 8000 tickets.

"It goes from strength to strength," said Hunter. "I think we definitely punch above our weight. In terms of the financial and human resources that we have, they are extremely modest, compared to lots of events. We put on more than 100 films, stage retrospectives, hold talks, have guests from all over the world. So I think we do pretty well. And that's reflected in the fact that in the last two years the audience figures have doubled."

A Festival Gift Pass goes on sale on November 1 from the Glasgow Film Theatre box office. For £40 cinemagoers can choose 10 films at the festival. Last year all 700 gift passes were sold out.