Curtains rise on DIFF today

The 15th edition of the Dhaka International Film Festival is set to begin tomorrow. President Abdul Hamid will inaugurate the festival at the main auditorium of the Bangladesh National Museum at 4pm. Finance Minister AMA Muhith and Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu will be special guests at the event, along with International film critics' organization FIPRESCI president Alin Tasciyan. A number of noted filmmakers, critics and journalists are expected to be present at the ceremony.

The festival will open with Academy Award-nominated film “3000 Nights” by Mai Masri that chronicles the story of a Palestinian woman in an Israeli prison. The disclosures were made at a press conference

Rainbow Film Society, the organiser of the festival, is also celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. A total of 188 films from 67 countries will be screened at the nine-day festival (that concludes on January 20), under various categories: Asian Competition, Retrospective (featuring films of legendary Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami and noted Turkish helmer Yeşim Ustaoğlu), Cinema of the World, Children's Films, Spiritual Films (in association with Italy's Religion Today Film Festival), Short and Independent Films, Nordic Film Session (with cooperation from Norwegian International Film Festival Haugesund) and Women Filmmakers' Films – at the Shawkat Osman Auditorium of Central Public Library, Alliance Francaise de Dhaka, Star Cineplex and EMK Center.

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.

A “Third Dhaka International Conference on Women in Cinema 2017” will also be held as part of the festival, in cooperation with Dhaka University's Women and Gender Studies. Women filmmakers, actors and other noted personalities will take part in the two-day conference at the Alliance Francaise from January 13-14.