A Decade of 'Celebrating Life'
'Celebrating Life' is a film, photography and lyrics competition held by The Daily Star and Standard Chartered Bank every year since 2008. This year, 'Celebrating Life' has reached is 10th anniversary. On 6th June, 'Celebrating Life' had a press conference commemorating its 10th anniversary and also had its theme launch for 2017.
This year's theme for 'Celebrating Life' is "Celebrating Diversity in Bangladesh". The theme was launched at the Westin, where representatives from The Daily Star and Standard Chartered Bank were present. The participants were called to capture the essence of the tremendous diversity in our country. After the unveiling of the theme, the organizers invited entries from young filmmakers, lyricists and photographers to send in their entries. "We are inspired seeing the expansion of 'Celebrating Life'. It is our pride to bring the hidden talents from the remotest parts of the country into a platform," said Abrar A. Anwar, chief executive officer of SCB. Mahfuz Anam, the editor and publisher of The Daily Star added, "A nation develops not only through its economic progress and political development, but also through the flourishing of its culture. Bangladesh has a rich and multifaceted cultural heritage. We have chosen three categories, lyrics, photography and films, to promote our culture." The event was moderated by Bitopi Das Chowdhury, SCB's country head of corporate affairs. Rafi Hossain, the festival director of 'Celebrating Life', was also present during the event.
Until now, 'Celebrating Life' has awarded 108 young people for photography, 84 for lyrics and 12 for films. The vision of 'Celebrating Life' is to encourage young artists to pursue their talents in the three aforementioned fields, so that they can represent their crafts not only in Bangladesh but also internationally. Winners of 'Celebrating Life' have gone on to achieve great things. An example of that would be Abdullah Mohammad Saad; whose film Live From Dhaka received many awards from various international film festivals. Since the film category of 'Celebrating Life' has been internationally acclaimed thereafter, one of the winners will get to attend a workshop in the Cannes Film Festival of which the expenses will be paid by the organizers themselves. This year, the young filmmaker to attend that workshop in Cannes was Lubna Sharmin, 'Celebrating Life' 2016's winner in the 'Best Fiction Film' category. The winning entries from the lyrics selected in the competition are turned into songs by renowned singers and musicians. The winners in the photography competition have also found substantial success when it comes to the international stage. Besides that, 22 people have been honored with the 'Lifetime Achievement Award' for their outstanding contribution in their respective fields.
A participant can submit his/her entries to all the categories if they want. However, they must register separately for each category from the 'Celebrating Life' website. The time for submission of entry has already begun, and the deadline is 31st August 2017. Registration will be accepted on the website (www.celebratinglifebd.com/register.php) and it is mandatory to register before sending any entries. No entries will be accepted without a registration number. The submissions can be sent in two ways: physical copies can be sent, or the entries can be mailed. In case of physical copies, the film and photography entries should be in CDs/DVDs, whereas the lyrics should be printed on A4 sized papers. Write your name, registration number, address, email address and cell phone number clearly in block letters on the envelope and on the back of each submission. In the case of CDs/DVDs, it needs to be ensured that the registration number is written on both the CD/DVD cover and the CD/DVD itself. The aforementioned information need to be mentioned in the mail body as well. Each participant can send a maximum of three submissions per category. For any more information you can contact Celebrating Life via their website, or inbox them at (www.facebook.com/celebratinglifecontests).
The winning entries for the Photography and Lyrics contest will receive Tk. 1,00,000/-, and the 1st runner's up entry will receive Tk. 75,000/-, with the 2nd runner's up entry receiving Tk. 50,000/-. An additional few will receive 'Honourable Mention' awards, along with crests and certificates. The film contest will be divided into two categories: 'Best Film' and 'Best Debut Film'. The prize money is Tk.2,00,000/- and Tk. 50,000/ respectively. Both the categories will award two winners each: 'Fiction' and 'Documentary'. The 'Lifetime Achievement Award' winners will now get Tk. 3,50,000/- each. 'Celebrating Life' welcomes old, new and talented participants, and wishes them all the best.
For more information, log in to www.celebratinglifebd.com
By Star Showbiz Desk