Frances McDormand heads film fest panel

BERLIN, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- Academy Award-winning actress Frances McDormand will chair next month's Berlin film festival, its organizers announced.

According to the BBC, McDormand will head the panel that awards the Berlinale's prestigious Golden Bear prize for best film on Feb. 14.

McDormand picked up the Oscar for her 1997 role as the pregnant police officer Marge Gunderson in the "noir" crime comedy "Fargo" by the Coen brothers.

The Berlin Film Festival is one of the world's most prestigious. The 10-day 54th festival beginning on Feb. 5 is the first major film competition of 2004. It will launch with the European premier of award-nominated "Cold Mountain." On the seven-strong panel with McDormand are Maji-da Abdi, African filmmaker of the 2001 "The River That Divides," which examined the war experiences of Ethiopian women, and Italian director Gabriele Salvatores, winner of the foreign film Oscar in 1992 for "Mediterraneo."

British director Michael Winterbottom won the Golden Bear prize last year with "In This World."