Dhaka Int'l Film Festival in January
The 15th edition of Dhaka International Film Festival (DIFF) will be held from January 12 to 20, 2017. With the theme “Better Film, Better Audience, Better Society”, the festival is being organised by Rainbow Film Society.
This year, the festival will have screening 188 films from 67 countries under several sections: Asian Competition, Retrospective, Cinema of the World, Children's Films, Spiritual Films, Women Filmmakers, Short and Independent Films, Tribute films and Nordic Films. The organisers will confer awards to the best films from most sections.
Screening of the films will start from 10am onwards at five venues: National Museum auditorium, Central Public Library auditorium, Alliance Française de Dhaka (AFD), EMK Center and Star Cineplex. A Lebanese film “Three Hundred Nights” will open the 15th DIFF at 4pm at National Museum auditorium.
The highlight of the festival is Retrospective Section that will feature screening of 10 films – five by Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami and five by Turkish woman filmmaker Yeşim Ustaoğlu. The big attraction for this edition is the screening of two Charlie Chaplin films -- “The Kid” and “The Circus”. To pay homage to the all-time great, organisers will screen the film in Tribute section.
A five-member jury will select the best film out of 23 nominations from the Asian Competition section. Besides, a three-member jury of FIPRESCI, the International Film Critics Federation, will also present its own awards in this section.
A number of foreign filmmakers will attend the festival as delegates. As part of DIFF, Rainbow Film Society and Bangladesh National Museum will organise “Seventh Dhaka Cine Workshop” from January 5-20. Renowned Iranian filmmaker and critic Professor Majid Movasseghi will conduct the workshop participated by young filmmakers of Bangladesh, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Iran and Tajikistan.
For the first time as part of DIFF, a solo art exhibition by Iranian artist-film activist Sarah Hojjati will be held at Gallery Shilpangan , Dhanmondi from January 7 to January 20. A two –day (January 13-14) conference on the title “Third Dhaka International Conference on Women in Cinema 2017” will be held at La Galerie of AFD.
A press conference was in this regard at Dhaka Club on December 26. Festival director Ahmed Muztaba Zamal elaborated on various aspects of this year's diverse arrangements. Among others, noted film and cultural personalities – Haider Rizvi, Rabiul Hussain, M Hamid and Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah spoke at the press meet.
Rainbow Film Society is celebrating their 40th anniversary this year. The organisers have been arranging the festival since 1992. Though initially they organised DIFF annually, they changed it to a biennial event since 2000. However, they have decided to organise the festival annually from this year.
IFIC Bank is the co-sponsor of the festival.
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