Actress Shu Qi, seen in a
file photo, will join the jury at the Berlin Film Festival next
month, organizers said Tuesday.
Hollywood actress Diane Kruger, French star Sandrine Bonnaire,
and Chinese actress Shu Qi will join the jury at the Berlin Film
Festival next month, on a panel led by Greek-French director
Costa-Gavras, organizers said Tuesday.
The jury, which will award the festival's Golden and Silver Bear
top prizes, will also include Russian media executive Alexander
Rodniansky and Oscar-winning cutter and sound designer Walter
Murch.
Rounding out the list are Danish director Susanne Bier ("Things
We Lost in the Fire") and German production designer Uli Hanisch,
Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick told a news conference ahead of
the February 7-17 event.
The German-born Kruger ("Troy") is currently appearing in
"National Treasure: Book of Secrets" with Nicolas Cage. She starred
as the wife of a South African prison guard in "Goodbye Bafana,"
which was in competition at the Berlinale last year.
Cesar award-winner Bonnaire has appeared in films by the biggest
names in French cinema including Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette
and Agnes Varda.
Shu Qi is a veteran of more than 50 Asian films including the
2002 international thriller "The Transporter" and Stanley Kwan's
"Island Tales" in 2000.
Ukrainian-born Rodniansky is a major film and television
producer as well as a documentary director in Russia and president
of the Moscow media holding CTC.
Murch has worked closely with Hollywood director Francis Ford
Coppola for 30 years on films including "Apocalypse Now" and "The
Godfather."
A star of the dynamic Danish cinema scene, Bier got her start in
Lars Von Trier's Dogma school of filmmaking and made a splash
worldwide with her 2007 Oscar-nominated drama "After the
Wedding."
Hanisch has picked up German and European accolades for the sets
of "Perfume" and "Run Lola Run."
The festival announced in November that Costa-Gavras would serve
as jury president. He made his international breakthrough in 1969
when he won two Oscars, including for best director, for the
political thriller "Z."
He won the Golden Bear prize for best film at the Berlin
festival in 1990 for "Music Box," starring Jessica Lange.
The Berlinale is ranked alongside Venice and just behind Cannes
in the ranking of Europe's top film festivals.
It will kick off with the gala premiere of a Rolling Stones
concert film by Martin Scorsese, "Shine A Light."
(CRI/Agencies January 31, 2008)