BIFF Announces Short Film Jury

A distinguished line-up for this year’s competition short film jury at the 15th annual Bermuda International Film Festival, being held March 16-22, was unveiled yesterday [Mar.8].

The jury’s primary role is to review the competition entries and select a winner of the Bermuda Shorts Award.

BIFF is one of only 62 Academy Award qualifying festival worldwide for the Short Film [Live Action] category, so BIFF entries have the chance of going on to win an Oscar. Two films that screened at BIFF have won the ultimate filmmaking accolade: “Wasp” [2004] and “Toyland” [2009].

The 2012 jury is headed by one of the UK’s top film producers, Nik Powell, responsible for bringing a slate of award-winning films to the screen including “Mona  Lisa” [1986], “The Crying Game” [1992], “Little Voice” [1998] and “Ladies in Lavender” [2004].

During his career, Mr. Powell has worked with a number of high-profile celebrities including Dame Judi Dench, Dame Maggie Smith, Michael Caine, Ewan McGregor, Forest Whitaker and Jim Broadbent.

“Wasp”, Part One: The Oscar-winning short film “Wasp” screened at BIFF in 2003

Mr. Powell’s films have garnered many awards and nominations, including an Oscar, several Oscar nominations and a Golden Globe.

He is currently Director of the National Film and Television School in the UK., while maintaining a number of additional non-executive positions including Chairman of Scala Productions, Vice-Chairman of the European Film Academy and a Member of the BAFTA Board of Trustees.

He was was one of the co-founders of Virgin Records with Richard Branson. Launched in 1972, it became one of the UK’s major recording labels until it was sold to EMI in 1992.

Prior to BIFF, Mr. Powell has served on the jury for a number of film festivals including Sundance, Moscow and Locarno. This is his first visit to Bermuda.

Bermudian producer, performer, writer, illustrator and designer, Michael Frith [pictured at top] is also flying in from his home in New York to play the role of BIFF juror.

Mr. Frith is perhaps most well-known for his role as Executive Vice President and Director of Creative Services at The Muppets/Jim Henson Productions, where he developed many of Henson’s greatest successes. Michael conceived scores of the most popular characters from “Sesame Street,” “The Muppet Show,” and “Saturday Night Live.” He was also co-creator of HBO’s International Emmy Award-winning series “Fraggle Rock”,  inspired by Bermuda’s Crystal Caves.

“Wasp”, part two

Later, along with his wife, the director/performer/writer Kathryn Mullen, among others, Mr. Frith became co-creator of “Between the Lions,” a series for PBS designed to teach children to read.

In its first two seasons, the series received 13 Emmy nominations, winning four. As a response to 9/11, Mr. and Mrs. Frith, with UK-based aid-worker Johnie McGlade, co-founded the charity, No Strings International,  and are now donating their services to the creation of videos designed to help children at risk in the developing world.

Alongside them is film academic, Leslie Taubman, Ph.D. Leslie was a Fulbright Scholar in Film Studies in Barbados in 2008/09.

At the University of the West Indies in Barbados, Ms Taubman helped develop the Film Studies programme. In addition to teaching Film History and Appreciation at UWI, she was President of the Jury for the Barbados International Film Festival.

Ms Taubman earned her M.A. in Cinema Studies from New York University and her Ph.D. in Communications-Cinema from the University of Southern California.

2009 Academy Award winner “Toyland” was shown at BIFF

She was a post-doctoral Visiting Fellow in International Film Studies at Harvard University in 2010. Leslie has lectured extensively – in India, Canada, Germany, Venezuela, El Salvador, Colombia and Vietnam. She has written for the “Los Angeles Times”, “The Hollywood Reporter”, “Films in Review” and “Magill’s Survey of Cinema”.

In addition, Ms Taubman serves as juror for the Brooklyn International Film Festival and is attached to Fordham University in New York as an Adjunct Associate Professor.

Local film aficionado, Keith Caesar, completes the BIFF 2012 jury lineup. Mr. Caesar hails from Sandys, Bermuda. His love for this art form stems from the creation of a television show while in college.

Since then he has been hooked on the craft of filmmaking. Currently he is the host of “Filmmakers’ Corner” on Bermuda’s CITV. The show has been introduction for many on local films and filmmakers through interviews with some of the island’s up and coming film talent and more established veterans.

Mr. Caesar maintains that the future of filmmaking and filmmakers in Bermuda is only just beginning.

This year, the jury will preside over the largest number of competition shorts that BIFF has ever seen.

Over 50 entries will be screened this year, however, due to budget constraints only select short films will screen publicly as part of the BIFF 2012 official lineup.

Those selected as part of the lineup will screen at Liberty Theatre, either preceding a feature-length presentation or as part of one of the three short film packages.

See BIFF’s website for scheduling information. The remaining competition narrative shorts will be viewed by the jury in a number of private screening sessions.

David O’Beirne, BIFF’s programming director, said: “The standard of entries for the Bermuda Shorts Award gets higher and higher even year as BIFF becomes more well-known and established within the filmmaking community. The decision-making process was incredibly tough this year leading us to decide to present an expanded shorts programme to the jury. The crowd also gets their say too with an Audience Choice Award.

“This year’s shorts hail from all over the world, including Sweden, Peru, Israel, Germany , USA, and the UK, and feature a huge array of characters from a financially-strapped doctor moonlighting as a taxi driver, to a young female wrestler and a Palestinian boy living in the Gaza strip. We are delighted to have a number of short filmmakers coming to Bermuda for their film screenings, who will be available for insightful post-film Q&A sessions.”

During festival week, over 80 films will screen at BIFF 2012. In addition to the Bermuda Shorts programme, there are five film showcases: World Cinema, Masterworks, Modern Masters, After Hours and BIFF Kids.

For more information, visit BIFF’s website, call +1 (441) 293-3456 or email info@biff.bm.

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Category: All, Entertainment, Films/Movies, Videos