Newsweek chief film critic David Ansen will chair the Jury at the 2003 Bermuda International Film Festival, April 11-17.

Mr. Ansen will be joined on the Jury by actress Karen Allen, who has appeared in nearly 30 feature films, veteran film marketer and distributor Jeffrey Jacobs and two winners at BIFF 2002 - director/producer/cinematographer Daniel Gold (Blue Vinyl) and short film director Ravi Kumar (My Other Wheelchair is a Porsche).

“David is among the most respected film critics in the United States,” says BIFF director Aideen Ratteray Pryse. “His views carry enormous weight in the industry, and we are delighted to have him for our Jury.

“Karen's career speaks for itself - she has featured in some of the biggest and best films ever produced,” says Ms Ratteray Pryse.

“We met her a couple of years ago, and she has always been keen about getting involved with the festival.

“We met Jeffrey in New York a few months ago, and he, too, was very supportive of our festival. And, of course, it is always nice to welcome back some of our winning filmmakers.”

The 2003 Bermuda International Film Festival Jury:

David Ansen

David Ansen is movie critic and senior editor for Newsweek, where he has been reviewing movies since 1977. He's written several documentaries for television, on Greta Garbo (for TNT), Groucho Marx (HBO), Elizabeth Taylor (PBS) and the Ace Award winning “All About Bette” (Bette Davis) for TNT.

He served on the selection committee of the New York Film Festival from 1990 to 1998. He is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Society of Film Critics and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. He is a three-time winner of the Page One Award from the Newspaper Guild of New York.

Karen Allen

Karen Allen has appeared in nearly 30 feature films, including “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, “Perfect Storm”, “In the Bedroom”, “Malcolm X”, “Shoot the Moon”, “Animal House”, “Cruising” and “Scrooged”.

She is also an accomplished stage actress, having won a Theatre World Award for her performance as Helen Keller in “The Monday after the Miracle”, which appeared on Broadway as well as at the Kennedy Centre in Washington, D.C.

She is a member of the Actor's Studio, a student of classical and jazz piano, and has taught creative design. She lives in New York with her son, Nicholas, 12.

Jeffrey Jacobs

Jeffrey Jacobs is President of Jacobs Entertainment Inc., a film buying and marketing firm. He has 30 years of experience in the marketing and distribution of American independent and quality international cinema in the US He is perhaps best known as the founding film buyer for the Angelika Film Center in New York, the highest grossing art cinema in the US, which he programmed from opening day in 1989 until 1997.

Currently, he is Managing Director of New York's Paris Theatre, the longest continuously operating art cinema in the US He also programmes 50 other screens across the country.

Daniel B. Gold

Daniel B. Gold is a director/cameraman who won the 2002 Sundance Excellence in Cinematography Award for his work on the feature documentary, “Blue Vinyl”, which he co-directed and co-produced with Judith Helfand.

The film won Best Documentary at BIFF 2002. Recently, Mr. Gold was honoured with a fellowship at the Mesa Refuge Writers retreat where he wrote a treatment for a feature documentary called “Melting Planet”, a new toxic comedy about global climate change.

He and Ms. Helfand are partners in Salt in the Ocean Productions, formed to create original, entertaining media with a social conscience and a sense of humour.

Ravi Kumar

Writer/director Ravi Kumar returns to Bermuda, having won the Bermuda Shorts award at BIFF 2002 with the short film, “My Other Wheelchair is a Porsche”. The film was selected to screen at some 15 festivals worldwide.

His previous short film, The Shave, was also a hit on the festival circuit, winning awards in Cologne, Frankfurt and Bilbao. Mr. Kumar lives in London, where he is working on his latest project, TEN. He holds a diploma in film studies.