The first ever Students' Cinema Day, being held on Saturday, will be marked in style with the premieres of two blockbusters - My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and K-19: The Widowmaker.

Following the success of the National Cinema Day and the two Children Cinema Days earlier this year, KRS Film Distributors and the cinemas will be holding Students' Cinema Day, specifically to coincide with mid-term holidays.

Forty screens will show films at reduced prices of Lm1.15 for students under 12, and Lm1.50 for those aged 12 and over.

The over 16s must present a student card to be entitled to a reduced price ticket.

Films at most of the cinemas in Malta will start at 9 a.m. and run till late night.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding is being compared by some critics to Four Weddings and a Funeral, a laugh-a-minute film about Toula, a Greek woman who dates Ian, a high school English teacher.

Her father is livid over her dating a non-Greek. He has to learn to accept Ian; Ian has to learn to accept Toula's huge family, and Toula has to learn to accept herself.

The other film premiere will be K-19: The Widowmaker, which focuses on the story of the USSR's first nuclear ballistic submarine, which suffered a malfunction in its nuclear reactor on its maiden voyage in the North Atlantic in 1961.

The submarine's crew races against time to prevent a nuclear disaster which threatens not only their lives, but has the potential to ignite a world war between the superpowers.

Other films still showing on the day include the Hannibal Lecter drama Red Dragon, starring Anthony Hopkins and Edward Norton, The Road to Perdition, starring Tom Hanks and Paul Newman, and Insomnia, critically acclaimed as one of this year's finest thrillers.

Today's openers, XXX, The Importance of Being Earnest and Halloween Resurrection, will also be screened.

Some cinemas will also be hosting the popular family and children's films Stuart Little, Spider Man, Spy Kids, Rat Race and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Dream.