Kerry Fox and Mark Herbert join Sydney Film Festival jury

This Is England '86

SFF LogoSydney Film Festival has confirmed New Zealand actor Kerry Fox and British producer Mark Herbert for the Official Competition jury in 2011.

This comes hot on the heels of the announcement of  SFF 2011’s Jury President, legendary Chinese director Chen Kaige (Farewell My Concubine, The Emperor and the Assassin, Together) whose new film Sacrifice will have its Australian Premiere at the festival.

The jury will award the Sydney Film Prize, Australia’s richest cash award for film – AUD $60,000, to one of the films competing in the 2011 Official Competition. The twelve film line-up was announced last week at the festival’s program launch, alongside the unveiling of new Official Competition Sponsor, iShares.

Kerry Fox is perhaps best known for Danny Boyle’s Shallow Grave and Jane Campion’s An Angel at My Table. She has recently been seen in Campion’s Bright Star, and is set to appear in the television adaptation of Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet, debuting on Australian television next week.

Mark Herbert has almost 30 production credits to his name, including Sydney Film Festival 2011’s Tyrannosaur, the latest film from Paddy Considine. He also produced This Is England ’86, the television spin-off of This Is England (which he also produced) that is also screening at Sydney Film Festival 2011. He also produced Four Lions, an audience favourite at last year’s Festival.

The final two jury members will be announced prior to the festival which opens Wednesday 8 June.

Tyrannosaur

The Sydney Film Festival runs from 8 – 19 June 2011 at various venues across the Sydney CBD. The program launch was on 11 May 2011. For the full program, please visit their website. Tickets are now on sale.

The Reel Bits is the cinema arm of DVD Bits. DVD Bits can be found on Twitter @DVDBits and The Reel Bits @The_ReelBits. DVD Bits is at http://www.dvdbits.com.