Turkish comedy-drama Kagit receives top award

(clockwise from left ): Scenes from “Kagit”, “Guerrilla” and “Moner Manush”.

Both the Bangladeshi entries -- “Guerrilla” and “Moner Manush” -- bagged awards and Turkish filmmaker Sinan Cetin received the Best Director Award for his comedy-drama “Kagit” (Paper), at the Dhaka International Film Festival 2012. The festival concluded yesterday on a high note. Oner Erkan received the Best Actor Award for his performance in “Kagit”, playing a young filmmaker who has set all his aspirations on his debut project.
The award giving and concluding ceremony took place at the Main Auditorium of the National Museum in Dhaka.
Joya Ahsan won the Best Actress Award for her moving performance in Nasiruddin Yousuff's Liberation War saga, “Guerrilla”. Indian filmmaker Goutam Ghosh received the Best Cinematographer Award for the Bangladesh-India joint production, “Moner Manush”.
“Guerrilla” also received the Best Audience Award at the festival, which ran from January 12 to 20 at four different venues including Central Public Library and National Museum. The organisers also conferred 11 other awards on different films.
The Badal Rahman Award for children's film went to the Iranian production “Meadow”.
The Women Filmmakers and Spiritual sections received two awards each, while Short and Independent section had six awards including three Special Mentions.
Zohreh Zamani's “The Barefoot Leader” (Iran) and Line Halvorsen's “Living without Money” (Norway) jointly received the Best Documentary Award in the Women Filmmakers' section.
The Spiritual section featured the Best Fiction and Best Documentary Award. “Flight of an Angel” (Philippines) and “The Labyrinth” (USA/Germany) respectively were the winners in this category.
“The Akram Tree”, a collaboration of UAE, Lebanon and Italy, and “The Absence of Mr. and Mrs. B”, from Iran, bagged the Best Documentary Award in the Short and Independent section. The Best Fiction Award in this section went to “Joselyn” (Spain). The three Special Mentions were awarded to “Julhase Checker” (Bangladesh), “La Playa De Berlin Cannon Beach” (Spain) and “Journey of No Return: Last Stop Frankfurt Airport” (Turkey).
The festival, organised by Rainbow Film Society, in association with several other local and international organisations, featured over 200 films from 55 nations. As the festival director informed, the biennale will be more organised and vibrant in coming years.
Noted local and international film personalities, including pioneering Iranian filmmaker Dariush Mehrjui, attended the festival.
AB Bank was the main sponsor of the fest, while Maasranga Productions and Standard Chartered Bank, Bangladesh were co-sponsors. Channel i was the media partner.