The judges for this year's Hollywood World Awards

The 13th Annual Hollywood Film Festival, presented by Starz, today announced the judges for this year's Hollywood World Awards. Created to recognize the best in international cinema, the Hollywood World Awards will be presented at the Hollywood Awards gala, which culminates the festival on October 26 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.

A panel of international judges, chaired by Mike Goodridge, editor of Screen International, consists of critics and festival directors who select the short list of films, as well as the winner. This year's judges include: Dan Fainaru (Israel), film critic; Howard Feinstein (US), film critic, Screen International & programmer, Sarajevo Film Festival; Sandra Hebron (UK), artistic director, The Times BFI London Film Festival; Allan Hunter (UK), film critic, The Daily Express, Screen International; Derek Malcolm (UK), film critic, The Evening Standard; Lee Marshall (Italy), film critic; Despina Mouzaki (Greece) director, Thessaloniki International Film Festival; Jacob Neiiendam (Denmark), director, CPH:PIX-Copenhagen Film Festivals; Jonathan Romney (UK), film critic; and Clare Stewart (Australia), director, Sydney Film Festival.

The award is a key predictor of foreign films that receive kudos in the year's awards season. Prior Hollywood World Awards winners include "The Motorcycle Diaries," "The Sea Inside," "Mrs. Henderson Presents," "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" and "The Class," among others.

Qualifying films must have their world premieres between Oct. 1, 2008 and Oct. 1, 2009, encompassing this year's crop from all the major film festivals. The selected nominees will be announced September 30, 2009.

"We want to ensure that we bridge the gap between established Hollywood and world cinema," stated festival founder and executive director Carlos de Abreu.

"Screen is thrilled to be partnering up again with Carlos and The Hollywood Film Festival for this award which brings some of the year's most exciting international films into the spotlight in Los Angeles. We have a superb team of expert critics and festival directors who will nominate their choices for world film of the year including titles from Venice and Toronto just weeks before," added Mike Goodridge, editor of Screen International.

A diverse lineup of films from around the world, including shorts and feature films, will be offered during the festival, which takes place October 20-26 at the state-of-the-art ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood. In addition to tributes and Q&A panels, there will be live events during the run of the festival, which culminates with the prestigious Hollywood Awards Gala. Last year's festival was an unqualified success, attracting thousands of moviegoers and receiving extensive coverage in all of the major local, national and international publications.

The festival and awards presenter is Starz Entertainment, LLC, a premium movie service provider operating in the United States. It offers 16 movie channels including the flagship Starz(r) and Encore(r) brands with approximately 17.7 million and 31.7 million subscribers respectively. Starz Entertainment airs more than 1,000 movies per month across its pay TV channels and offers advanced services including Starz HD, Encore HD, Starz On Demand, Encore On Demand, MoviePlex On Demand, Starz HD On Demand, Encore HD On Demand, MoviePlex HD On Demand, and Starz Play.