“Betty Blue” helmer Jean-Jacques Beineix to head Tokyo Film Fest jury

PanARMENIAN.Net - Betty Blue director Jean-Jacques Beineix will head the jury for the 2016 Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF), which announced its full line-up in the Japanese capital, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Beineix will be joined on the jury by Spotlight producer Nicole Rocklin, Italian actor Valerio Mastandrea, Hong Kong-born director Mabel Cheung and Japanese director Hideyuki Hirayama.

16 films in the main competition, from Asia, Europe, the Middle-East, North and South America will compete for the Tokyo Grand Prix, best director, best actor, best actress, special jury prize and best artistic contribution. More than 1,500 films from 98 countries, up from 1,400 from 86 countries last year, were submitted to the fest.

TIFF will continue the focus on Japanese, and to a lesser extents Asian, films that it has emphasized under the four-year tenure of festival director general Yasushi Shiina, with Japan Now, Japanese Classics, Japanese Cinema Splash and Animation Focus, featuring a showcase of leading anime director Mamoru Hosoda.

"It feels really nostalgic to see footage from Digimon Adventure, my first production, a 20-minute short that was shown at an anime fair 17 years ago," said Hosoda at the line-up announcement press conference.

10 of his films will be screened in The World of Mamoru Hosoda showcase

Other sections include Asian Future, Crosscut Asia, World Focus, TIFF Children, outdoor screenings and eight special screenings, including The Birth of a Nation.

As previously announced, the fest will open with Stephen Frears' Florence Foster Jenkins and close with Yoshitaka Mori's Satoshi: A Move for Tomorrow.

The festival will run from Oct. 25 to Nov. 3 at the Roppongi Hills complex and other central Tokyo venues, while its TIFFCOM (Japan Content Showcase) market will take place in Odaiba, on Tokyo Bay, from Oct. 25 to 27.