Tokyo FILMeX returns for the seventh time from Nov. 17-26 to present 34 titles, including the latest in contemporary world cinema, at four venues.

In the Competition section, the festival presents nine new films directed by emerging filmmakers from Japan, Tajikistan, the Philippines, China, Israel and Iran.

Among the competition films, Bahman Ghobadi's "Half Moon" (Nov. 22, 1:10 p.m. at Cine Quanon Yurakucho; Nov. 25, 9:15 p.m. at Yurakucho Asahi Hall) follows an elderly Kurdish musician attempting to cross the Iran-Iraq border into post-Saddam Hussein Iraq to hold a concert. Also part of the Competition section is "The Happiness" (Nov. 23, 3 p.m. at Yurakucho Asahi Hall), the latest movie by director Masahiro Kobayashi, winner of the Grand Prize at last year's FILMeX for "Bashing."

Most films in the Special Screenings section will be shown with English subtitles, including the festival's opening picture, "Still Life" (Nov. 17, 6:30 p.m., followed by a Q&A, at Tokyo International Forum Hall C). "Still Life," set in a Chinese town near the Three Gorges Dam construction site, won the Golden Lion at this year's Venice Film Festival.

Also screening is a Kihachi Okamoto retrospective (with English subtitles) and two titles by the late Swiss auteur Daniel Schmid never before theatrically screened in Japan.

Screenings take place at Tokyo International Forum C, Yurakucho Asahi Hall, Cine Quanon Yurakucho and the National Film Center, Cinema 1, 2F. Ticket prices vary. For more information, visit www.filmex.net