The Tokyo International Film Festival has announced itslineup for its 17th edition, which will be held from October 23 to 31 in theBunkamura and Roppongi Hills complexes.

The two opening films are Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle and Yoji Yamada's The Hidden Blade -- the latter afollow-up to Yamada's Oscar-nominated TheTwilight Samurai.

The closing film is TheTerminal, with director Steven Spielberg and star Tom Hanks expected tomake stage appearances. Also, TIFFGeneral Producer Tsuguhiko Kadokawa announced that Yamada will serve as jurychairman -- the first-ever Japanese to assume that role.

The 15-film competition section, selected from nearly 310entries, is weighted toward Japanese and Asian films, including Eiji Okuda's Runin -- Banished, Kenneth Bi's Rice Rhapsody, Chang Hyun-soo's Everybody Has Secrets, Im Chan-sang's The President's Barker and ChengWen-tang's The Passage.

Meanwhile, the fest has doubled the size of its Winds OfAsia section for Asian films, from 15 to 30.

Among the special WOA sections are one dedicated to newtalents in the Philippine film industry, one to Hong Kong director Pang HoCheung, one to Indian producer Yash Johar and one to digitally restored filmsfrom the 1950s to 1970s by Hong Kong actiion auteur Chang Cheh.

Among the films in the Special Screening section are IrwinWinkler's De-Lovely, Stephen Hopkins'The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers,Stephen Chow's new comedy Kung Fu Hustle,Yoshimitsu Morita's Umineki, YuzuruHoshi's University Of Laughs and PaulMcGuigan's Wicker Park, with starJosh Hartnett scheduled to appear on stage.

This year TIFF will sponsor two markets -- a festival first.The Tokyo International Entertainment Market 2004, to be held from October 22to 24 at the Nippon Convention Center, will specialise in comics, anime, gamesand films. A total of 92 companies have signed on to exhibit so far, includingmajor Japanese publishers, animation houses, TV stations and film companies.They will be selling rights for a wide range of Japanese contents including thePokemon and Gundam franchises.

Meanwhile, the Tokyo International Film & ContentsMarket 2004 will be held from October 25 to 27 at Roppongi Hills in downtownTokyo. Most of the 70 exhibitors signed up so far are Japanese, including themajor distributors Toho, Toei and Shochiku and the Fuji TV, NTV, TBS and TVAsahi networks. Korean, Chinese and Hong Kong companies will also be out inforce.

Among other events scheduled in conjunction with the TIFFare the Nippon Cinema Classics section, the Tokyo Anime Film Festival, theTokyo International Fantastic Film Festival and a retrospective dedicated tothe works of Atom Egoyan.