The 13th Dhaka International Film Festival (DIFF) will be held from today to January 18, 2014. The slogan of the festival is “Better Film, Better Audience, Better Society,” and the event is organised by Rainbow Film Society, which is dedicated to the promotion of a healthy cine culture in Bangladesh, and also celebrates global cinema.
The festival aims to attract a number of important film personalities to Dhaka, and thereby adds to the prestige and fame of the city as a cosmopolitan. It also offers Bangladeshi filmmakers, producers and artistes an opportunity to interact and create networks with the international film community. The festival has also created space for young and aspiring filmmakers in Bangladesh and larger South Asia to connect with global artistic trends and to strengthen the parallel development of Bangladeshi cinema.
During the 13th DIFF, organisers expect to screen approximately 150 films, with participation from approximately 50 countries. The festival will have a competition section for the Asian and Australian cinema and segment categories for: “Retrospective,” “Cinema of the World,” “Children’s Film, “Women Filmmakers,” “Short and Independent Films Section,” and “Spiritual Films Section.”
The Bag of Flour directed by Kadija Leclere will be screened at 4pm in the opening ceremony as opening film of the festival at the National Museum auditorium. Then, a 96 minutes Indonesian film The Mirror Never Lies directed by Kamila Andini will be showcased at 7:30pm.
At the auditorium of the Public Library, five films will be screened every day from 10am to 9pm. Today, the first film of the day will be Lost In The City from children’s section. The film is directed by Lu Yunfei and will be screened at the venue at 10am. From the Australasian competition category, Catriona Mc Kenzie’s Satellite Boy will be showcased at 1pm, Miss Zombie directed by Sabu at 3pm, Constructors by Adikhan Erzhanov at 5:30pm and Kil by Nik Amir Mustapha at 7:30pm.
At the Sufia Kamal Auditorium of National Museum, five films will be screened today, Legacy Of A Nobody directed by Matt Erickson at 3pm, Kayan directed by Maryam Najapi at 5:30pm, Refugio 115 directed by Ivan Villamel at 7:30pm, Alexander Zavin’s Slowly Up and will wrap up with the showing of Lien Chien Hung’s A-Way respectively.
Parallel to the event, the festival committee has also organised an “International Conference on Women in Cinema” in cooperation with the Department of Women and Gender Studies, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication and Department of Television & Film Studies of the University of Dhaka. From today, the two day-long conference will be held at the Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Hall of the University of Dhaka.
Professor AAMS Arefin Siddique, Vice Chancellor of University of Dhaka will grace the occasion as chief guest at the inaugural ceremony to be held today at 9:30 am at the Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Hall of the University of Dhaka.
