The Taipei Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its fifth edition (March 9-22) which includes a special focus on cinema from Australia and Japan.

Among the eight films that will screen in the Australian New Current section are four from Tony Ayres, including last year's critical hit Walking On Water, and two from David Caesar - Mullet and Dirty Deeds. The Australian New Wave Retrospective features 14 titles from the 1970s and 1980s including seminal films such as Peter Weir's Picnic At Hanging Rock and Newsfront directed by Phillip Noyce.

A section entitled Kyoto: Capital of Japanese Cinema will screen 14 titles from the Japanese city including Akira Kurosawa's 1946 No Regrets For My Youth and Yasujiro Ozu's 1958 Equinox Flower. The Japanese New Current section includes Naoki Nagao's The Ripples, Chicken Heart, from Takashi Kitano protégé Hiroshi Shimizu, and A Snake Of June, directed by Shinya Tsukamoto.

The festival will also screen a programme of short films including 11'09'01, a collection of films about the September 11 terrorist attacks, and shorts directed by Jane Campion, Gillian Armstrong and Phillip Noyce.

Jun Ichikawa's Ryoma's Wife, which premiered at the Pusan International Film Festival last November, will open the event and A One And A Two, from Taiwan's Edward Yang, will be the closing film