ONCE again the feature-length film of a local gal has been selected for screening in the Bermuda International Film Festival.

Julie Parker's award-winning documentary, Blue Vinyl, will make its Bermuda debut during the fifth annual event this April.

The former Bermuda High School student produced the fast-paced tale which the Sundance Film Festival honoured for Excellence in Cinematography in the documentary category.

"A South African film about racial reconciliation, a slick Australian thriller and two award-winning documentaries from the Sundance Film Festival are among ten feature-length films selected for screening," Duncan Hall, BIFF's director of business affairs, said yesterday.

"The films are part of what is anticipated to be a final line-up of approximately 50 films. The remainder of the line-up, including the feature films slated for the prestigious opening and closing night slots, and the line-up of short films, will be announced soon."

The festival is supported by a number of sponsors with the Bermuda Department of Tourism as its international promotional partner and the ACE Group and the Elbow Beach Hotel as principal partners.

"We are grateful to all of our sponsors for their continued and generous support," festival director Aideen Ratteray Pryse said. "Without our sponsors, we could not deliver the range and quality of films that our appreciative film-goers have become accustomed to seeing. All of our sponsors from the private sector have really shown their commitment to the wider Bermudian community as good corporate citizens."

Some 50 films are anticipated in the festival's final line-up of which ten are feature-length, organisers say.

"I am excited about our film line-up, which is our strongest yet," programming director David O'Beirne said.

The films selected are as follows:

l Malunde, directed by South African Stefanie Sycholt, tells the story of a cross-country drive by a hardened former military man and a young boy whose mother was imprisoned for her membership in the African National Congress (ANC). The two lead actors, Ian Roberts and Kagiso Mtetwa, shared the Best Actor prize at AVANTI, the South African film awards. The film also won Best Picture and Best Director.

l The Bank by Australian director Robert Connolly is about a computer expert who claims he can predict the next stock market crash. The film is part of the festival's eight-film Australian sidebar.

l Daughter from Danang won the documentary Grand Jury Prize at January's Sundance Festival. It chronicles the reunion of a Vietnamese mother and her Amerasian daughter after a 22-year separation. The film is by American directors Gail Dolgin and Vicente Franco.

l Blue Vinyl, directed by Judith Helfand and Daniel B. Gold and produced by Bermudian Julie Parker, is a fast-paced, funny and toxic tale about home, family, industry-sponsored science and the ecology of denial. Helfand won a Peabody Award for the documentary A Healthy Baby Girl.

l Hotel, director Mike Figgis' latest work, displays his experimental style. The acclaimed British director also helmed Leaving Las Vegas (1995) and Time Code (2000).

l Last Wedding was directed by Canadian Bruce Sweeney. It is about three friends and their relationships with their significant others, all of which move quickly towards the cracking point. The film opened the Toronto International Film Festival.

The British occult thriller Revelation, by director Stuart Urban, stars Terence Stamp and Udo Kier and is about a relic that has been fought over by the forces of light and darkness for 2,000 years. Film-maker Urban's first film showed at the Cannes Film Festival when he was just 13.

l No Turning Back is about a Honduran who illegally emigrates to the United States to offer a better future for his young daughter and questions the concept of the "American Dream". Directed by Jesus Nebot and Julia Montejo, the film has won six festival awards worldwide.

From the makers of Human Traffic, winner of the Best Narrative Feature award at BIFF 2000, comes a film that one critic has described as "Human Traffic's older and darker brother". Directed by Richard Perry, South West 9 captures the pulse of Brixton by focusing on one day in the lives of six of its inhabitants.

l Cunnamulla, a documentary written, produced and directed by Dennis O'Rourke, is also featured in the Australian sidebar. The film is an honest portrait of life in an isolated community in outback Queensland.

The Bermuda International Film Festival runs from April 12 through 18.