The International Jury of the Barbados International Film Festival has been selected to judge the Feature, Shorts and Documentary films. The four-member panel is made up of a mix of experienced professionals from the film industry.

• Judy Gladstone
• Piedad Palacios
• Dr. Sean Russell
• Neil Edwards

Ms. Judy Gladstone is the President of the Jury:

Judy Gladstone has been the Executive Director of Bravo!FACT (Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent; www.bravofact.com) since 1997. Bravo!FACT (www.bravofact.com) was established in 1995 by CHUM Television’s Canadian National Cable Arts Channel Bravo!. The foundation is the largest fund for film shorts in Canada. Some thirteen million dollars have been awarded in grants for the production of over 1,000 shorts across the country. The shorts are broadcast in Canada on CHUM Television channels, and distributed to international broadcasters, and are frequently honoured at film festivals. Bravo!FACT-funded shorts have been screened and won awards at prestigious festivals around the world, including Cannes, Sundance and the Toronto International Film Festival.

Ms. Gladstone was coordinator of the CIDA-funded Canada Fund for Dialogue and Development in the Middle East providing grants enabling Israelis and Palestinians, Jordanians and Egyptians, to work together on cultural and other projects.
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Piedad Palacios is President of BTG Productions and has over fifteen years of experience in the entertainment industry. She currently has several feature and television projects in development including “Shoot” a feature thriller to be shot in Miami; She relocated to Miami as Special Projects Representative for the MPA/Motion Picture Association, Latin American office. She has been U.S. Advisor to the Bogotá International Film Festival; Ms. Palacios has also been Consultant to the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival on Latino programming and special guests.

Ms. Palacios is presently an appointed, Vice Chair of the Miami Dade Country Advisory Film & Entertainment Board. Palacios was Juror at the 2005 Santa Barbara International Film Festival and has been Juror of the AFI Finishing Funds Award, Board Member of the national Hispanic Media Coalition in Los Angeles and the Latino Task Force, Santa Monica, CA,

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Dr. Sean Russell is a local Barbadian writer and producer. In 2007 he debut his first feature film 'The Kite Flyer' which took him four years to make. The film has won the Best Festival Pick at the local Bridgetown Film Festival 2007 and is the number 1 selling DVD for Barbados' largest video operator. Dr Russell wrote (started the script 15 years ago),produced,edited and created the soundtrack for the film and financed the film out of his own pocket! "

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Neil Edwards, is a Senior Director with the Ministry of the Attorney General, Ontario Human Rights Commission, Canada and responsible for managing the strategic planning and direction of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, including developing the vision, mission, policies and long-range objectives.

Mr. Edwards was a Board Member of the Black Secretariat of Toronto and Member of the Black History Month Gala Committee. He was also lead in the planning of Michaëlle Jean, first African Canadian Governor General of Canada visit to the African Canadian community, Toronto, and was a Community Volunteer, Arts Against Apartheid Festival, Toronto, Canada: A once-in-a lifetime dramatic, musical and literary gala featuring some of Canada’s leading artists in the fight against apartheid in South Africa.