A group of high profile media professionals have agreed to act as judges for the final rounds of the recently launched Insight Film Festival.

Hollywood writer David N Weiss is the latest to join the group of judges for the festival, which is offering £1000 as a first prize to young film makers if they can explain what makes people passionate about their religion.

Weiss is the co-writer of Shrek 2, The Rugrats Movie and Rugrats in Paris - two of the highest grossing traditional animation features of all time.

He joins three other media professionals who have agreed to act as co-judges, Anna Cox, BBC TV's commissioning executive in Religion and Ethics programmes, Dr Rajinder Dudrah, Head of Drama and Senior Lecturer in Screen Studies at the University of Manchester, and Sarfraz Manzoor, writer and broadcaster.

A call for entries to the competition began in June, and the organisers have welcomed the "encouraging" response.

Some of the best films received will be shown in the Insight Festival in Manchester during November 2007.

The Insight Festival has the aim of encouraging "the use of moving image creativity to promote community cohesion and understanding", and to offer a platform for creative people of different cultural and faith backgrounds to explore and communicate the "phenomenon and potency of faith" using contemporary moving images.

It also aims to encourage dialogue, communication and insight between people of different faiths and none.

Entries for the Film Festival are invited from throughout the UK and may be received until 28 September.

All details can be found on the Festival's website: www.insightfestival.co.uk