Three aspiring filmmakers to receive short film grants

Sultana's Dream is a non-profit, founded by the acclaimed filmmaker Rubaiyat Hossain. It aims to provide funding and mentorship grants to support emerging female filmmakers. "Breaking the Silence" is their first program since their inauguration on February, and after six long months of training and workshop, the short film grant competition reached its end on September 18.

Fatiha Taiara Sporsho, Mahamuda Aktar Monisha and Monon Muntaka are the three winners who will be receiving this grant. They were selected out of sixteen other participants, who were selected from a pool of more than a hundred applicants. The participants received basic training and attended extensive workshop programs under the mentorship of prominent filmmakers, producers and academics from Bangladesh and abroad.

After the six-month long training period, an independent jury board—consisting of the senior director of Asia Foundation's Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality Jane Sloane, the director of the Goethe Institute of Bangladesh Kirsten Hackenbroch, film critic and screenwriter Sadia Khalid Reeti and French film producer Dominique Welinski—selected the three best screenplays to receive the grant for "Breaking the Silence".