"Guardians of the Galaxy" director James Gunn will head the jury in The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) that will include 30 world premiers with five in the main 15-title competition section, organizers announced Tuesday.
Films from Japan, China, France, Belgium, Russia, and the U.S. will be among those who will compete for the Sakura Grand Prix worth $50,000 and other awards.
Directors John H. Lee (A Moment to Remember), Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde), John Khoo (Tatsumi), Hiroshi Shinagawa, and Casting Director Debbie McWilliams will join Gunn in the jury.
The films that cut it in the competition were handpicked from the 1,373 submissions from 92 countries.
"Film is a window on the world today, through which we can see its true shape. It is the medium that shows us with the greatest immediacy the vast variety of people on the earth, and how they are all just as human as we are," said Festival Programming Director Yoshi Yatabe said in a statement. "The works in the Competition Section of the Tokyo International Film Festival were selected with the goal of showing our world in a microcosm."
Tim Burton and Takeshi Kitano will be the first recipients of the Samurai Award, a new initiative to celebrate filmmakers who make "groundbreaking films that carve out a path to a new era."
This year's festival will focus on Anime, including the world premiere of "Garm Wars: The Last Druid" by Mamoru Ishii, a showcase of Hideki Anno, and theshowing of "Pikmin" shorts from Nintendo Game creator Shigery Miyamoto.
Walt Disney's "Big Hero 6" will represent U.S. animation, as well as, Disney's John Lasseter who will have a panel about the Japanese Culture and Anime.
The Festivals 27th run will be on October 23-31 at Roppongi Hills and other Tokyo venues in Japan.
