<i>10th Int'l Short and Independent Film Festival-Dhaka begins</i>
Soovas Dutt receives award from Hasnat Abdul HyePhoto: STAR
The 10th International Short and Independent Film Festival-Dhaka began on February 14 with much enthusiasm. Bangladesh Short Film Forum (BSFF) has been arranging the festival biennially since 1988 and it is the largest festival highlighting works by independent filmmakers in Bangladesh.
The inauguration of the festival was held at the Central Public Library premises. Eminent playwright Sayeed Ahmed inaugurated the festival.
Renowned litterateur and Chairperson of the festival, Hasnat Abdul Hye gave the vote of thanks at the programme. He said, “It is a composite progra-mme where film screenings, seminars, lectures and discussions will be held. This festival provides a great opportunity for film enthusiasts who will be able to exchange their views with acclaimed filmmakers.”
Eminent filmmaker Soovas Dutt was awarded with the 'Hira Lal Sen Memorial Award' at the programme for his immense contribution to Bangladeshi cinema. Hasnat Abdul Hye handed over the crest to the veteran filmmaker.
President of BSFF, N. Rashed Chowdhury delivered the welcome speech. He said, “Since its inception, BSFF has been arranging this festival that features independent films from all around the world for our audience.”
Director of the festival, Manzarehasin Murad and Coordinator of General Programme, Oxfam GB, M.B. Akhter also spoke at the programme.
This year two films will be awarded -- in the feature film and documentary categories (one from each).
A three-member jury board in each category will select the best film. Members of the jury boards are, for feature film category -- Tareque Masud (Bangladesh), Morshedul Islam (Bangladesh) and Girish Kasaravalli (India) and for the documentary category -- Amir Mohammed (Malaysia), Faridur Rahman (Bangladesh) and Shaheen Dill-Riaz (Bangladesh/Germany).
Other important sections in the festival are, 'Country Focus', featuring films from Malaysia; 'Retrospective', highlighting films by three internationally acclaimed independent filmmakers and 'Independent Shots', featuring films under 10-minutes by young Bangladeshi filmmakers.
'Independent Shots' is also a competitive section. The best film from this section will receive the Tareque Shahriar Memorial Award.
A lecture on “Digital Media and the Possibility of New Cinema” and a national seminar on “Filmmaking in Digital Format: Bangladesh Perspective” will be held on February 16 and 18 respectively.
A total of 170 films from 40 countries will be screened at four venues throughout the nine-day long festival.
Oxfam GB is the partial sponsor and ntv is the media partner of the festival.
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