Swinton to preside over Berlin film fest jury

Academy Award-winning British actress Tilda Swinton will chair the next Berlin film festival jury, organizers announced on Wednesday.

Festival director Dieter Kosslick praised the 48-year-old actress for "her commanding screen presence" as well as her "indelible impression in contemporary, innovative film making."

Other jurors have not yet been announced for the European festival, which runs Feb. 5-15.

Swinton, who has previously served as a juror at Cannes and started her own cinephile festival in the Scottish Highlands town ofNairn this summer, debuted in British arthouse films in the mid-1980s.

In the past decade, she has taken on more prominent Hollywood projects, includingfilms like The Beach, Vanilla Sky, Constantine and The Chronicles of Narnia.

Her turn in 2007 legal thriller Michael Clayton scored her a best supporting actress Oscar in February. She was once again seen opposite her Michael Clayton co-star George Clooney this fall in the dark Coen brothers comedy Burn After Reading.

Swinton will also appear with another Burn After Reading colleague Brad Pitt in the upcoming film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.