Hollywood is a Goliath. The movies that come out of the United States capture the hearts of people around the world. When it comes to the festival circuit, though — Cannes, Toronto, Venice — the film world starts to look much more global.

Japan's biggest event of this kind, the Tokyo International Film Festival, closed its 30th edition last week with an appearance from former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike, the latter awarding the festival's Grand Prix to Turkish director Semih Kaplanoglu for his film "Grain."

Kaplanoglu won the Competition section, which, despite Hollywood's dominant reach worldwide, didn't include any North American films this year. The U.S. was represented on the Competition jury, however, by actor Tommy Lee Jones, who headed the panel.