Over the next two days, The Royal Gazette will provide reviews of the films competing in this year's Bermuda International Film Festival.

There are 14 feature length pieces - seven are documentaries and seven are fiction. The filmmakers usually provide festival organisers with either a video or DVD copy of their film. Sometimes they release them for only a short period and sometimes the organisers have attended a special screening of the piece.

Royal Gazette reviewers had access to only nine of the 14 films. We plan to screen and review the remaining five on their opening nights during the festival. Of those not reviewed it is worth mentioning that “What Remains of Us” was omitted for security reasons.

The Canadian filmmakers have placed tight security on the Tibetan documentary about the reaction of the Dalai Lama's message to Tibetans living at home. This year, we've also included our own rating system of the competition films:

A must see

Well worth seeing

Ah... go ahead

Don't bother