Tokyo fest to open with The Social Network and close with The Town

TIFF will launch with the screening of David Fincher’s Facebook chronicle The Social Network and conclude with Ben Affleck’s crime drama The Town.

The Social Network, which opens the New York film festival on Sept 24, will be released by Sony Pictures in Japan on January 15. Crime drama The Town, currently at the top of the US box office, is slated for domestic release by Warner Brothers next year.

TIFF organizers also announced more titles in its world cinema program, capped off by a screening of late French director Claude Chabrol’s Inspector Bellamy. Also screening are: Jerzy Skolimowski’s Venice prize winner Essential Killing; Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer; Michel Gondry documentary The Thorn In The Heart, and Philip Seymour Hoffman directorial debut Jack Goes Boating.

On Friday eight more competition titles were revealed, bringing the total to 12. Also competing for the Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix are: Shawn Ku’s Beautiful Boy, Rowan Joffe’s Brighton Rock, Hamid Reza Aligholian’s Flamingo No. 13, Sinisa Dragin’s If The Seed Doesn’t Die,  Nir Bergman’s Intimate Grammar, Iván Noel’s Primary! and Gilles Pacquet-Brenner’s Sarah’s Key.

The remaining three entries in the 15-title competition will be announced at the TIFF lineup press conference on Sept 30.