ENERGETIC performer and national treasure Brian Blessed has been named as one of the judges for this year’s Thurrock International Film Festival.

The actor, most remembered for his role in the cult film Flash Gordon, will join Spiderman 2 star Alfred Molina to rank the short films submitted in this year’s event.

The deadline for submissions has now closed and organisers say they have received double the entries of last year.

Last year the festival received 106 films for its short film competition from 13 different countries, this year it has received more than 240 films from 35 different countries including films from Australia, China, America, Germany, Finland, Brazil and Mexico.

“We set ourselves the target of doubling our entries and increasing the number of counties represented from 13 to 18 and we smashed both targets. We are extremely pleased.” said organiser Natalie Williams.

More judges are set to be announced in the coming weeks. There are also software prizes up for grabs from Lightworks which is an editshare professional editing programme.

The organisers are also in the middle of planning lots of events and screenings for the festival, which will take place between September 23 to 28 this year.

Screenings will mainly take place at the Thameside Theatre in Grays and Thurrock Council have joined the list of sponsors for the 2013 festival.

Benjamin Scarsbrook, organiser, added: “We have some really brilliant events planned for this year’s festival that we are sure the people of Thurrock will love.”

For more information on the festival and to stay up-to-date with all the event news follow on twitter @thurrock_film or facebook.com/thurrockinternationalfilmfestival or email info@thurrockfilm.co.uk.