Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick has appointed seven members to the International Jury of the 53rd Berlin International Film Festival 2003.

Headed by Canadian director Atom Egoyan, this international group of film experts will select the winners for the Golden and Silver Bears in the competition.

Atom Egoyan - director (Canada), President of the International Jury
Atom Egoyan's international breakthrough came in the 1987 Forum where he presented his feature film Family Viewing. His best known works include Calendar, Exotica, The Sweet Hereafter and his most recent work Ararat. This director, who has Armenian roots, has won numerous prizes at international film festivals including The Grand Prix and International Critics Awards from the Cannes Film Festival and two Academy Award nominations.

Martina Gedeck - actress (Germany)
As the beautiful, spirited cook in Mostly Martha, Martina Gedeck won the hearts of audiences from Italy to the USA. The film also brought her the German Film Award 2002 as well as diverse international prizes. German movie-goers are acquainted with this actress of complex roles - whose screen career began in 1988 with Tiger, Löwe, Panther - from such successful hits as Der Bewegte Mann (Maybe' Maybe Not), Das Leben Ist Eine Baustelle (Life Is All You Get) or Rossini.

Anna Galiena - actress (Italy)
In Patrice Leconte's The Hairdresser's Husband from 1990, she played an erotic hairstylist and loving wife - a role which was to earn Italian actress Anna Galiena international acclaim. In 1993 she performed in the screen adaptation of Thomas Mann's Mario And The Magician.

Kathryn Bigelow - director (USA)
Kathryn Bigelow is one of the few women directors to feel at home with the action genre. After years of working as a painter and conceptual artist, she switched to directing. Her first big hit was Blue Steel which was screened in the Berlinale Panorama in 1990. She excited critics and audiences with her film Strange Days in 1995, an action-packed thriller mixed with science-fiction. Her most recent film was K-19: The Widowmaker.

Idrissa Ouedraogo - director (Burkina Faso)
One of Africa's most internationally celebrated directors comes from Burkina Faso. Idrissa Ouedraogo won the FIPRESCI Award in Cannes with his film Yaaba in 1989, and has been a participant in the Berlinale twice. His film Samba Traore screened in the Competition in 1993. Ouedraogo recently contributed as director to the production 11'09"01, a work that puts together short films about the events on September 11, 2001. Ouedraogo has also worked as a screenwriter and producer.

Humbert Balsan - producer (France)
As an actor Humbert Balsan collaborated in films with directors like Robert Bresson, James Ivory and Samuel Fuller, among others. In 1978 he changed his profession and became a producer. Balsan has discovered and promoted a whole string of French filmmakers including Philippe Faucon and Sandrine Veysset. One of his most recent productions is Divine Intervention by Palestinian director Elia Suleiman, who received the Jury Prize in Cannes last year.

Geoffrey Gilmore - festival director (USA)
Director of the Sundance Film Festival in Park City/Utah, Geoffrey Gilmore is an indefatigable traveller when it comes to film. After years of responsibility for the festival's program selection, Gilmore is one of the best authorities on international independent filmmaking. Moreover, with the Sundance Collection, Gilmore has established a unique independent film archive at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA). He is also active as advisor for many film organisations and projects.

The award ceremony of the 53rd Berlin International Film Festival will be held at the Berlinale Palast on Saturday, February 15, 2003.