European Film Promotion has changed its Shooting Stars programme by adding a jury to select the actors to be touted.

Cinematographer Michael Ballhaus will serve as president of the new jury, who will vote for nine up-and-coming European actors to be presented as Shooting Stars at the 2008 Berlinale.

Twenty two EFP member countries have each nominated an actor, and the jury will vote on the finalists at the beginning of December.

The other jurors will be UK actress Lucy Russell, Danish producer Vibeke Windelov, US manager Derek Power, and Italian casting director Beatrice Kruger.

Ballhaus said: 'Europe is so rich in excellent young actors and actresses who unfortunately are often only known in their native countries. The goal of EFP to make the best actors from 22 European countries known internationally is something that I think is very important. The United States - where I worked for very many years - has an exemplarily functioning star system at its disposal - developing something similar in Europe would help the film industry here a lot.'

In the past 10 years, Shooting Stars has promoted actors including Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz and Franka Potente.

Backers of Shooting Stars are the EU's MEDIA Programme, EFP member countries, Volkswagen and Studio Hamburg International Production.

EFP managing director Renate Rose said that in addition to the new international jury, Shooting Stars would plan a new series of events including masterclasses, as well as developing a Shooting Stars website.

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