The first of three free lunchtime panel discussions hosted by the Bermuda International Film Festival starts today.National Public Radio’s Peter Ranier will interview film directors, writers and producers at the Bermuda Society of Arts today and Wednesday.Meanwhile BIFF advisory board member David Poland will speak with publicist Whitney Kimmel tomorrow.The panel discussions will take place between 12.15pm and 1.15pm each of the three days.Said a BIFF spokeswoman: “[Today] Peter Rainer of NPR will be discussing screenwriting with Larry Gross, the renowned screenwriter who, with Walter Hill, co-wrote ‘48 Hours’, ‘Streets of Fire’, ‘Another 48 Hours’ and ‘Geronimo’. Winner of the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival for ‘We Don’t Live Here Anymore’ starring Mark Ruffalo and Naomi Watts, Larry has years of experience writing scripts that reach the big screen.”Mr Poland’s Tuesday interview with Ms Kimmel will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the Academy Awards and the campaigns which help make films winners.Said the spokeswoman: “Whitney has represented such films as ‘The King’s Speech’, ‘Precious’, based on the novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire, ‘Biutiful’, ‘Inglorious Basterds’ and ‘A Single Man’. These films don’t win awards by accident; they are the subject of serious awards campaigns, and Whitney will give us a behind-the-scenes look at the Academy Awards. Short films are the topic of Wednesday’s panel. Mr Ranier will talk with Daniel D’Alimonte of ‘The Haymaker’; Matt Morris of ‘Mr Happy Man’, and Andrew Stoneham of ‘Coffee & Pie’.