A celebrated producer and a pair of international film critics have been unveiled as the jury for the Bermuda International Film Festival’s short film competition.

The jury is being headed by producer Jan Harlan who worked with Stanley Kubrick on iconic films including ‘A Clockwork Orange’, ‘The Shining’ and ‘Full Metal Jacket’.

He was also the executive producer on Steven Spielberg’s 2001 film ‘AI’ and directed a documentary about Mr Kubrick, ‘Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures’.

He is joined by Pulitzer Prize finalist film critic and president of the National Society of Film Critics, Peter Rainer. During his 30-year career, his reviews have been published by the Christian Science Monitor, Bloomberg News, Los Angeles Times and New York Magazine among others.

Rounding out the panel is film critic, journalist and filmmaker Lauren Wissot, who sits on BIFF’s International Advisory Board. Ms Wissot is the programming consultant for the Santa Fe International Film Festival and has attended BIFF several times in past years as a journalist.

The panel will judge 15 shorts — selected from a pool of more than 500 entries — as part of the festival’s Bermuda Shorts competition with the winning film eligible for consideration in next year’s Academy Awards.

The festival’s Director of Programming David O’Beirne said the programming team were impressed by this year’s entries, which came from countries across the globe.

“We believe that we have the made the broadest selection yet, geographically speaking, with contributions from Australia, Belgium, China, France, Iran and Kosovo, to name a few,” he said. “Feedback tells us that BIFF has a great reputation among filmmakers and that is something we are very proud of. We are delighted to once again be welcoming several overseas filmmakers to the island to attend their screenings and Q & A sessions.”

BIFF is scheduled to begin tomorrow. An online film guide and advance tickets are available on www.biff.bm.