BIFF APPOINTS ALL-FEMALE JURY TO PRESIDE OVER SHORT FILM COMPETITION AT "SWEET 16" FESTIVAL

BIFF today announces the all-female jury that will preside over this year's short film competition that forms part of Bermuda International Film Festival being held April 12-18. BIFF is one of a small number of Academy Award qualifying festivals worldwide, the winner of the Bermuda Shorts Award will therefore be considered for the Short Film (Live Action) Oscar in 2014.

The 2013 jury is headed up by Academy and Emmy Award-winning Australian documentary filmmaker, Eva Orner. Her most recently wrapped feature, The Network, will be screening at BIFF 2013. The film, which had its world premiere at SXSW in March, goes behind the scenes at the largest and most successful television network in Afghanistan – one of the most unstable and dangerous places on the planet.

Eva's producing credits include Taxi to the Dark Side; Gonzo: The Life and Works of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson; The Human Behaviour Experiments and Herbie Handcock’s Possibilities. Her work has screened at leading film festivals around the world including Cannes, Sundance, Tribeca and Sydney. She has worked with people as varied as Jonny Depp to Sheryl Crow and Graydon Carter. Eva is now based in Los Angeles.

BIFF also welcomes multi-award-winning film director, Julia Loktev, to the jury. Her latest film The Loneliest Planet (2011), about an engaged couple’s backpacking trip that become derailed, won the Grand Jury Prize at the AFI Film Festival and was selected for many film festivals included New York, Toronto and Locarno. Julia’s first documentary feature, Moment of Impact (1998), won several prizes including the Directing Award at Sundance and the Grand Prize at Cinema Du Reel in Paris. Her fictional debut, Day Night Day Night (2006) premiered at Directors' Fortnight in Cannes where it won the Youth Prize and went on to win the Louve D’Or at Montreal Festival du Nouveau Cinema, Best New Director at Chicago International Film Festival and the Someone to Watch prize at the Independent Spirit Award.

Born in Russia but now based in New York, Julia also makes multiple-screen video visual art installations that have been exhibited in London, New York, Munich, Spain and Japan. She was recently awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Susan Norget, a highly successful New York-based film publicist, rounds out the jury. Her company, Susan Norget Film Promotion, is committed to representing the work of the world's most visionary foreign filmmakers, American independents and documentarians. Award-winning directors championed by the company range from established favourites including Lars Von Trier (Melancholia, Dogville, Dancer in the Dark); Werner Herzog, whose Into the Abyss screened at BIFF 2012; and the Dardennes Brothers, who directed A Kid with a Bike that screened at Bifflix in May 2012. The agency also represents newer talent like Andrea Arnold, whose Wuthering Heights screened at BIFF 2012 and whose short film, Wasp, won the Bermuda Shorts Award in 2004 and went on to win the Short Film Oscar.

Films that Susan’s agency has promoted have consistently been honoured with top international awards, including four Best Documentary Oscars, three Golden Globes, several top Cannes and Sundance awards, as well as dozens of Independent Spirit and Gotham Award prizes. Other films represented by her agency with a BIFF connection include Beyond the Hills, which screens at BIFF 2013; Pina, which screened at BIFF 2012; and Certified Copy, which screened at BIFFlix in October 2011.      

The jury will watch 30 shorts screening at BIFF 2013 either before a feature presentation or as part of four themed short film programmes (see www.biff.bm for scheduling information). The competition shorts were selected from over 500 entries by BIFF’s programming team of David O’Beirne, Andrew Stoneham, Alex MacDonald and Dawn Robinson. Entries were received from all over the world and feature a huge array of characters including a rogue scientist, a Somali refugee, a World War I soldier, an explorer in the North Pole, a professional safecracker and the Queen's dog walker.

David O’Beirne, BIFF’s Programming Director, said: “We were bowled over by the quality and volume of short films submitted this year. We are using well-known industry software, Withoutabox, for the first time this year to allow online submissions, which has helped to streamline the process and offer budding filmmakers across the globe a chance to screen in Bermuda. Feedback tells us that BIFF has a great reputation amongst 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 offer Q&A sessions.”

During festival week, over 50 films will screen at BIFF 2013. Tickets are available online at www.ptix.bm or at the BIFF Box Office located at Freisenbruch-Meyer, 75 Front St, Hamilton, open weekdays 11am-2pm.