The 15th edition of the Tokyo international film festival, (Oct 26 to Nov 4) is to welcome high-profile Hollywood guests at the same time as increasing the number of Japanese films at the event.

Celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, festival organisers have introduced a number of changes to the programme in order to increase the festival's international appeal. The event recently came under criticism for screening too many Hollywood films such as Shrek and Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and also for being too parochial rather than an international festival compared to other events in Asia such as in Pusan and Hong Kong.

The opening film will be Minority Report, with Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg in attendance while closing film will be popular Japanese director Yojiro Takita's samurai period drama, When The Last Sword Is Drawn (Mibugishiden).

"It's been seven years since we had last screened a Japanese film for a closing film. I believe that Japanese live action films are just as good as animation features. This year, the festival will proudly present more numbers of Japanese films in the out of competition section," said Michiyasu Kawauchi, the festival director at the press conference in Tokyo on September 5.

The festival has selected the 15 films which will compete for the $83,000 (Y10m) Grand Prix and the $16,000 (Y2m) Jury Prize. Among the films in competition are Roberta Torre's Angela, Yee Chin-Yen's Blue Gate Crossing, Nir Beregman's Broken Wings, Fernando Meirelles's City Of God, Bahman Ghobabi's Marooned In Iraq, Valery Fokin's Metamorphosis, Jason Xenopolous's Promised Land, Carlo Rola's Sass, Chris Eyre's Skins, Jiang Quimin's Sky Lovers, Nan Achnas's The Flag, Inoka Sathyangani's The Wind Bird. Three other competition films will be announced on September 30.

Luc Besson head of the jury will present his latest film The Transporter. Other jury members include: with the Oscar-winning cinematographer Jack Cardiff; Hong Kong director Chi-ngai Lee; Park Chan-wook who directed the Korean blockbuster JSA, and Kazuko Kurosawa, daughter of the master director Akira Kurosawa.

Full line-up

In Competition

Angela
Director: Roberta Torre
Cast:Donatella Finocchiaro/Andrea Di Stefano/Mario Pupella

Blue Gate Crossing
Director: Yee Chih-Yen
Cast: Guey Lun-mei/Chen Po-lin

Broken Wings
Director: Nir Beregman
Cast: Orli Zilbershartz, Maya Maron, Nitai Gvirtz

City of God
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Cast: Alaxandre Rodrigues, Douglas Silva, Sue Jorge

Marooned In Iraq
Director: Bahman Ghobadi
Cast: Shahab Ebrahimi, Allah-morad Rashtian, Faegh Mohammadi

Metamorphosis
Director: Valery Fokin
Cast: Evgheny Mironov, Igor Kvasha, Tatiana Lavrova

Promised Land
Director: Jason Xenopolous
Cast: Nick Boraine, Yvonne van den Berg, Ian Roberts

SASS
Director: Carlo Rola
Cast: Ben Becker/Jurgen Vogel/Otto Sander

Skins
Director: Chris Eyre
Cast:Graham Greene, Eric Schweig, Nathaniel Arcand

Sky Lovers
Director: Jiang Qinmin
Cast: Liu Ye Don Jie Tao Hon

The Flag
Director: Nan Achnas
Cast: Havidz Khoir, Nuansa Jawadwipa, Indah R. Suprapto

The Wind Bird
Director: Inoka Sathyangani
Cast: Damitha Abeyrathna, Linton Semage, Janani Senanayake

Special Screenings

Minority Report
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Tom Cruise/Colin Farrell/ Samantha Morton

Godzilla against Mecha-godzilla
Director: Masaaki Tezuka
Cast: Yumiko Shaku/Shin Takuma/Akira Nakao

Jam Films
Director: George Iida/Shunji Iwai/Ryuhei Kitamura/Tetsuo Kitamura/Tetsuo Shinohara/Yukihiko Tsutsumi/Rokuro Mochizuki/Isao Yukisada

John Q
Director: Nick Cassavetes
Cast: Denzel Washington/Robert Duvall/James Woods

K-19:The Widowmaker
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Cast: Harrison Ford/Liam Neeson/Peter Sarsgaard

Koi Ni Utaeba
Director: Shusuke Kaneko
Cast: Yuka,/Naoto Takenaka/Tomoe Shinohara

Rabbit-Poof Fence
Director: Philipp Noyce

The Last Waltz
Director: Martin Scorsese

The Pianist
Director: Roman Polanski
Cast: Adrien Brody/Thomas Kretschmann/Frank Finlay

The Ring
Distributor: Gore Verbinski
Cast: Naomi Watts

The Rookie
Director: John Lee Hancock
Cast: Dennis Quaid/Rachel Griffiths

The Transporter
Director: Corey Yuen
Cast: Jason Statham/Qi Shu/Matt Schulze

The Wind Carpet
Director: Kamal Tabrizi
Cast: Takaaki Enoki/Yuki Kudo/Reza Kianian

When the Last Sword Is Drawn
Director: Youjiro Takita
Cast: Kiichi Nakai/Kouichi Satou