Chairman of the International Jury at this year's festival is Max Von Sydow, one of the most recognisable faces in world cinema today.

Perhaps best known internationally for his role as the questing knight in Ingmar Bergman's Seventh Seal, Von Sydow's lean, angular features have graced an extraordinary range of films in both Europe and Hollywood.

He has played assassins (Three Days of the Condor), moody artists (Hannah and her Sisters), Jesuit priests (The Exorcist) and even Christ himself (in George Stevens' epic The Greatest Story Ever Told).

He is also a distinguished stage actor: he began his career at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, and has since performed to considerable acclaim in London's West End and on Broadway.

Recent highlights in a glittering career which already stretches more than 40 years have been his heart-rending portrayal of the dignified, long-suffering Swedish emigrant in Bille August's Pelle The Conqueror, and his directorial debut - a restrained but very moving adaptation of the Herman Bang story, Katinka.

Geoffrey Macnab

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