Culture Desk
The curtain of the 18th Dhaka International Film Festival (DIFF) will rise on January 11 in the forthcoming year. To promote Bangladeshi filmmakers and their works, 11 Bangladeshi films are going to be screened under Bangladesh Panorama section at the festival. The Bangladesh Panorama section will be comprised of fictional films that released in between the year 2018 and 2019. Films with the runtime of 70 minutes at least are eligible for this category. The International Film Critics’ Federation, FIPRESCI will give the Critics’ Award. One Best Film will be selected by the FIPRESCI juries. The award will be in the form of a certificate and a crest.
Three films, produced by Impress Telefilm Ltd, have been nominated under Bangladesh Panorama category for the 18th DIFF. They are— ‘Fagun Hawai’, directed by Tauquir Ahmed; ‘Alpha’, directed by Nasiruddin Yousuff and country’s first ever omnibus film ‘Eti, Tomari Dhaka’, directed by 11 filmmakers. Other films which have been nominated for the same category are—‘Amra Ekta Cinema Banabo’, directed by Ashraf Shishir; ‘Chandrabati Kotha’, directed by N Rashed Chowdhury; ‘Shuttle Train’, directed by Pradip Ghosh; ‘Mayaboti’, directed by Arun Chowdhury; ‘Tunes of Nostalgia’, directed by Farid Ahmed; ‘Maya – The Lost Mother’, directed by Masud Pothik; ‘Nigrohokal’, directed by Proshoon Rahamaan and ‘No Dorai’, directed by Taneem Rahman Angshu. The festival will have competitions in its Asian Cinema Section, Retrospective, Bangladesh Panorama Section, Cinema of the World Section, Children Films Section, Women Filmmakers Section, Short and Independent Films Section and Spiritual Films Section.
The 9 day-long 18th Dhaka International Film Festival (DIFF) will continue till January 19. As part of the festival, about 220 films from 74 participating countries are going to be screened at six venues—Alliance Francaise de Dhaka, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Central Public Library Auditorium, National Museum Auditorium, Madhumita Cinema Hall and Star Cineplex, in the city. The general theme of the festival is “Better Film, Better Audience, Better Society.”The Festival has been organised on a regular basis by Rainbow Film Society, which has been dedicated to the promotion of a healthy cine culture in Bangladesh and in celebrating the global mainstream in film and its social relevance since 1977.
