Renowned film personality Prof Zakir Hossain Raju, PhD, Head of the Department of Media and Communication at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB), has joined the ongoing 80th Venice International Film Festival as a Netpac NetpacJury Chair.
Earlier this year, the organizers of the global film festival invited him to preside over the Jury for the Asian Film Competition, says a press release issued on Wednesday.
The 80th edition of the Venice International Film Festival is taking place between August 30 and September 9, 2023.
Established in 1932, it holds the distinction of being the oldest film festival and remains a top film festival in the world, attracting filmmakers, industry professionals, and enthusiasts from all over the globe.
The Asian Film Competition at the Venice Film Festival is organized by the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC), a global organization dedicated to the study and circulation of films of Asia and the Pacific.
This year, after nearly two decades, the festival organizers have set a distinct section to award Asian cinema separately.
Well-known personalities such as Teresa Cavina, former Artistic Director of Rome International Film Festival, and Dr Viera Langerova, prominent film critic and researcher from the Czech Republic, will join Prof Raju as co-jurors.
Dr Zakir Hossain Raju is also the Director of the King Sejong Institute at IUB. He also introduced a course on Bangladeshi Film in 2001 at IUB and two others on Korean and Japanese cinema in recent years, first and only of their kind in South Asia.
In 2015, Routledge published his celebrated book "Bangladesh Cinema and National Identity: In Search of the Modern?"
He has been a jury in several well-known international film festivals in the US, Estonia, South Korea, France and Australia, including the Rotterdam International Film Festival.
Prof Raju’s cinematic creations have been featured in festivals such as Busan, Hawaii, Singapore, San Francisco, Edinburgh, and AIDC. He won the Commendation of the Jury Award at the European Anthropological Film Festival in 1997.
Before Dr Raju, in 2001, Ahmed Muztaba Zamal, Festival Director of Dhaka International Film Festival served as Netpac jury at the Venice Film Festival.
