Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang’s Face will open the 10th anniversary edition of Tokyo Filmex, which runs from November 21-29 in the city’s Yurakucho and Tsukiji districts.

Face premiered in Cannes competition this May and is currently screening at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The closing film at Tokyo Filmex will be Park Chan-wook’s Thirst, which shared the jury prize with Fish Tank in Cannes.

Ten competition films will vie for a $10,970 (Y1m) grand prize: Omri Givon’s Seven Minutes In Heaven (Israel), Bahman Ghobadi’sNo One Knows About Persian Cats(Iran), Hana Makhmalbaf’s Green Days (Iran), Vimukthi Jayasundara’s Between Two Worlds (Sri Lanka), Pen-Ek Ratanaruang’s Nymph (Thailand), Joon-han Yeo’s Sell Out! (Malaysia), Chang Tso-chi’s How Are You, Dad? (Taiwan), Soi Cheang’s Accident (Hong Kong), Ik-june Yang’s Breathless (Korea), Go Shibata’s Doman Seman (Japan).

The competition jury will be headed by director Yoichi Sai. He is joined by Chinese director Lou Ye, Toronto programmer Giovanna Fulvi, programme director of the Cinematheque Francaise Jean Francois Rauger, and Taiwanese actress Chen Shiang-chyi, who appears in Face.

In addition to the opening and closing films, the ten-film special screenings programme includes world premieres of Toshiaki Toyoda’s The Blood Of Rebirth and Tatsushi Omori’s A Crowd Of Three, Lou Ye’s Spring Fever, Bradley Rust Gray’s The Exploding Girl and Peruvian filmmaker Claudia Llosa’s The Milk Of Sorrow.

Also part of the tenth anniversary lineup is a retrospective on legendary French director Jean-Pierre Melville and the 27-title “Nippon Modern: 1930s” programme, which includes classic films by Yasujiro Shimazu and Yasujiro Ozu.

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