TOKYO: Animated features will be in focus at the Tokyo International Film Festival when it kicks off next month, organisers said Tuesday, along with the cinema of Asia and the Middle East.

The 27th TIFF, which will run from October 23 through 31, "will have great animation films... and we hope to help promote Japanese animations around the world," festival programming director Yoshihiko Yatabe told a press conference.

"A film made in Azerbaijan is one of features this year, a country where the fascinating cinema scene is being influenced by the thriving film industry in neighbouring Turkey," he said.

This year, the collected works of Hideaki Anno, who is seen as the next Hayao Miyazaki, the famed Japanese animation and manga master who retired last year, will be seen together for the first time, the event secretariat said.

Anno is best known for his popular science fiction anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion, which became a sensation in Japan in the 1990s.

Other programmes include 3D short movies directed by Shigeru Miyamoto, senior managing director of game company Nintendo and renowned game producer for Sumer Mario Bros and Donkey Kong.

TIFF's principal attraction, the competition section, screens 15 feature films from around the world that were selected from some 1,300 entries.

The core events also include a competition for young directors in Asia and the Middle East, the secretariat said.

Side events will also include the screening of Chinese and South Korean films, as well as those about Spain and Latin America.