International Film Festival, are returning this year -- as jurors.

Macky Alston (`Family Name'), Paul Hills (`Boston Kickout') and Mark Edgington (`Anna in the Sky'), will be joined on the panel by US film expert Larry Auerbach, former Columbia Pictures chief Lewis Korman, the Mid-Ocean News' editor Tim Hodgson and award-winning director and producer Arthur Rankin, who chairs the jury.

This year's slate of films promises to be at least as good as last year's, according to Mr. Hodgson who, this time around, will adjudicate the short films and serve as an alternate juror for the feature films. "On this second outing, we have a cross-section of work from across the world,'' he says.

"These include nine from the US -- one of which is written and directed by Alison Swan. There are also two from Canada and a joint British and French film. In the shorts section, we have a Bermuda film by Bill Madden, as well as offerings from the US, Canada and the UK.'' Mr. Hodgson, who studied film at the University of Toronto and the University of South California in Los Angeles, teaches film courses at the Bermuda College and, back in the 1980's, was one of the organisers of the Bermuda Festival's Film Programme.

Last year's winning directors are all in process of making new films: Paul Hill, who started making films at the age of 13 and has produced many top music videos, and now serves as vice chairman of the UK's New Producers Alliance, is currently making `The Name of the Game'; Mark Edgington's short film, `The death of Mr. Frick & Other Hardships' has been selected by the UK's Channel 4 for its Young Filmmaker of the Year competition and he is co-writer on a feature film, `Sunbeam', which is being produced by Jean Doumanian (Woody Allen's producer) and is to be shot in Montauk and Dublin this year.

"I can't wait to get back to Bermuda,'' exclaimed Macky Alston, whose documentary film `Family Name', his first feature-length film, won him the Jury Prize, the top award offered by the new Bermuda festival. Speaking to The Royal Gazette from his office in New York, he added, "It was a great place to screen my film and it was wonderful to be recognised and awarded -- it's so rare for a documentary to win the top place!'' His autobiographical film, which has also won awards at the world-famous Sundance Festival, as well as in New York and North Carolina, is being picked up by PBS later this year for a projected series on race relations. "I felt that my film had a particular resonance with the people of Bermuda, as it grew out of black and white families in North Carolina who bore the same name.

There are obvious parallells in Bermuda.'' The film chronicles his search for descendants of slaves and slave owners from plantations once owned by his family in North Carolina. "After one of the screenings in Bermuda, a black person and a white person actually came up to me and said, `Let us introduce ourselves -- we both have the same family name!' So Bermuda is obviously trying to deal with these kinds of issues, perhaps all the more so, as Bermudians are much closer to each other.'' Describing his Bermuda award as a "stunning'' event, Mr. Alston said that as a result of the prize and other awards, his film achieved bookings right across the US. "It creates a buzz and gives your film the stamp of approval in that it's been picked out as being above the others!'' Noting last year was his first visit to the Island, Mr. Alston said he had been overwhelmed by the beauty of the place:"I found the people so gracious and so professional -- especially as that was their first year. There is no question that Bermuda is the `most together' and the best run of the festivals I've attended.'' He was impressed, he said, by the fact that festival organisers had limited the number of films to a number which they felt could be realistically handled -- and handled well. I am so grateful to have been invited back...'' Films selected for this year's festival include:- `The Farm' (USA), directed by Jonathan Stack and Liz Garbus, is a documentary which explores life behind bars in the bleak State Penitentiary at Angola, Louisiana.

`Trouble On The Corner' (US), director Alan Madison, is described as an offbeat black comedy/thriller. Centering around an idealistic psychologist who attempts to help a menagerie of patients from Harlem, this film features Tammy Grimes, Debi Mazar (`LA Law') and Giancarlo Esposito (`Waiting to Exhale' and Tony Goldwyn (`Ghost').

`Mixing Nia' (US), written and directed by Bermuda's own Alison Swan, is a romantic comedy, tracing the adventures of a young woman who quits her job in advertising to write a novel. Ms Swan, who won the Spike Lee Fellowship at the New York University Film School where she obtained her Masters in Fine Arts, has featured Isaiah Washington, Karyn Parsons (`Hilary' on `Fresh Prince of Bel Air') and Diego Serrano from `Another World'.

`The Best Revenge' (US), directed by James Becket, is set in El Salvador's civil war of the 1980's and explores the complicated issues of complicity and innocence in a country torn apart by strife.

`Neptune's Rocking Horse' (US) (Robert Roznowski and Robert Tate) centres around five `typical' urban characters whose lives, are changed as a result of police harassment toward an African-American drag queen. The star is Helen Gallagher, three-time Emmy winner for performances in `Ryan's Hope'.

`Stolen Heart' (Canada), directed by Terry O'Brien, has just won the Best Canadian Feature Film at the Victoria Independent Film Festival in British Columbia. This "dysfunctional thriller' concerns a `perfect' crime -- a kidnapping -- and features Lisa Ryder of `The Newsroom'.

`Ocean Tribe' (US), with Will Geiger as director, was inspired by the true story of a young cancer victim. Set against a backdrop of spectacular surf cinematography, this is the story of a group of childhood surfers who reunite to see one of their number "catch one last wave''. This film has already won Geiger Best Director from the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival.

`Kini & Adams' (UK /France), directed by Idrissa Ouedraogo, set in an African landscape, examines the changing nature of friendship as two young people experience setbacks in their attempt to escape rural life by moving to the big city.

`Stranger in the Kingdom' (US), directed and produced by Jay Craven, is a mystery, described as "quirkily unpredictable''. Set in the New England of the 1950's, this film takes a humorous look at two slovenly brothers whose lives take on unexpected twists through the arrival of two strangers -- a black minister and a young French-Canadian girl.

`Green Chimneys' (US), directed by Constance Marks and Bob Eisenhardt, is a documentary which traces the troubled lives of three young abandoned boys who are given the chance for a new beginning when they enter a unique facility in New York State.

Film festival set to open `Hang the DJ' (Canada, directed by 26-year old twins Marco and Mauro La Villa), this documentary follows two DJ brothers on an exotic trip around some of the best nightclubs in the world.

`Who's the Caboose?' (US), Sam Seder director, is a `mockumentary' comedy about a comedienne who leaves New York in the hopes of landing an appearance in the next TV hit series of `Seinfeld' and follows her through the following, nerve-racking 90 days of `pilot season'.

`Ingrid' (US) , driected by Alexander Tana, is a psychological thriller which centres around a Manhattan psychiatrist who is ordered to kill a new patient's husband -- or risk his own unmasking as a murderer who had killed a woman 20 years previously. This film will "keep audiences guessing to the end -- and after'' as even the denouement has an unexpected twist.

The short films include `Worldwatch' (Bermuda), directed by Bill Madden; `Little Man' by US director Amyn Kaderali; `For Coloured Boys Who've Considered Suicide' (US), by Narcel G. Reedus; `Soap' by UK director Dave Ainley; `Through My Eyes' (Canada) by Kathryn Martin; `Elimination Dance', developed from Booker Prize winner Michael Ondaatje's short story by Canadian director Bruce McDonald; `Babyface' (US) directed by Don Gaille and `Phil Touches Flo' (US) by David Birdsell.

The Bermuda International Film Festival opens on Friday, May 1 at the Liberty Theatre and Little Theatre in Hamilton, with performances each day through May 7.

RETURN FOR A WINNER -- Macky Alston, a winning director at last year's festival with his film Family Name, will return this year as judge.