The international premiere of Hideo Nakata's fantasy thriller L: Change The World will kick off the Far East Film Festival April 18 in Udine.

The 10th edition of the festival will close April 26 with Johnnie To's musical comedy Sparrow.

This year's festival will host an industry event in collaboration with the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia Film commission's regional fund. Called Ties That Bind, the event aims to reinforce distribution and production between Asia and Europe.

In total, the festival will screen 62 films from 11 countries. Nine hail from Hong Kong, including Oxide Pang's The Detective, Johnnie To's and Wai Ka-Fai's Mad Detective and Adam Wong's Magic Boy. Johnnie To and Wai Ka-Fai are both scheduled to attend the festival.

China brings six titles, including Feng Ziaogang's Assembly. Taiwanese director Jay Chou's romance Secret will screen in its international festival premiere.

South Korea is represented by 10 titles, including Kong Su-chang's The Guard Post and Jung Kil-young's horror Our Town.

Among the 15 films from Japan are Yamazaki Takashi's Always: Sunset On Third Street 2 and Fukagawa Yoshihiro's erotic drama Peeping Tom.

The festival, which began as a showcase of Hong Kong cinema in 1998, has grown to be the most respectable window of Asian cinema in Europe and is attended by Venice artistic director Marco Mueller and Cannes artistic director Thierry Fremaux, among others.