SEX AND the City star Kim Catrall has been revealed as one of the judges of a major award at Edinburgh International Film Festival.

The UK/Canadian actress, who lives in New York, will take her place on the judging panel of the Michael Powell Award, which is named after one of Britain’s most original filmmakers.

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She will be joined by US actor Clancy Brown, known for roles in Highlander and the Shawshank Redemption and Iciar Bollain, the Spanish actress, director and screenwriter who featured in Land and Freedom, Ken Loach's film about the Spanish Civil War.

Mark Adams, artistic director of Edinburgh International Film Festival said that this year's shortlist for the award – founded in 1990 to honour creativity in British film making – had been difficult to call.

"As always, the trick is also to have the right balance of films that? can appeal to the broad audience base and we want to show a selection of

films that appeal on many levels that excite, challenge, beguile and? entertain and that provoke a wide variety of emotions," he added.

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"Judging one film against another is always hard, but our jurors are passionate and intelligent film insiders who will offer a great deal of insight and debate.

"We are alongside Cannes, Berlin and Venice as one of the oldest film festivals around, and with age comes an amazing amount of respect and admiration from around the world."

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The festival, now in its 70th year and running from 15–26 June, will be opened by director Jason Connery's film about golf legends Old Tom Morris and his son Tommy, Tommy's Honour, starring Peter Mullan and Jack Lowden.