Director Li Jixian of "The Western Trunk Line" speaks at the awarding ceremony of the 20th Tokyo International Film Festival held in Tokyo Sunday.  (File Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    TOKYO, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- "The Western Trunk Line," a Chinese movie telling a story in a remote town at the end of 1970s, won Special Jury Prize at the 20th Tokyo International Film Festival on Sunday.

    "I have been thinking to make such a move since 1994," said director Li Jixian at the awarding ceremony at Shibuya's Bunkamura, Tokyo. "I met quite some challenges in making screenplay, but I never thought of quitting."

    "The Band's Visit," a movie jointly produced by Israel and France, grabbed the top prize "Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix." The film, directed by Eran Kolirin, tells a story of an Egyptian police band getting lost in Israel.

    British film "Dangerous Parking" by Peter Howitt won award for best director, while the Best Actress and Best Actor went to Shefali Shah (Indian movie "Gandhi My Father") and Damian UI (Polish movie "Tricks") respectively.

    Two popular films in the competition sector, the festival's opening movie "Crossing Over", which is jointly produced by Japan and China, as well as the U.S. movie "Reign Over Me" featuring post-Sept. 11 story, did not win any award.

    Winner of the Grand Prix will be awarded 50,000 U.S. dollars, while other prizes in the competition category carry 5,000 to 20,000 dollars each.

    Also included in the festival is the Akira Kurosawa Award, established in 2004 at the annual film festival to commemorate the Japanese movie legend. David Puttnam, now president of UNICEF UK and former independent movie producer, won this year's Akira Kurosawa Award. He is famed for Osaka-winning "Chariots of Fire", as well as "The Mission", "The Killing Fields", "Local Hero" and other movies.

    During the 9-day film festival, over 300 films from various countries and regions have been shown in Shibuya, Roppongi and other locations in Tokyo. A number of related events featuring animation films, Chinese movie week, Korean cinema week, "Tokyo in Focus", women's film festival, short films, internet movies and others have also been on stage around the same period.