The 18th Dhaka International Film Festival (DIFF) has announced the program for its Bangladesh Panorama Section, which aims to promote Bangladeshi filmmakers and their work. The announcement came via internationally renowned film critic and DIFF Festival Director Ahmed Muztaba Zamal’s Facebook status, as updated on Thursday.
Zamal wrote: “DIFF will focus on Bangladesh Panorama which helps to accommodate more films and our target will consist of 10-15 selected fictional and documentary films spanning the period from 2018 to 2019 and with a minimum length of 50 minutes are eligible for entry in this section. The International Film Critics’ Federation, FIPRESCI will give the Critics’ Award. One Best Film will be selected by the FIPRESCI juries. The award will be in the form of a certificate and a crest.”
The segment will showcase 11 Bangladeshi films: Ashraf Shishir’s Amra Ekta Cinema Banabo (The Innocence), Nasiruddin Yousuff’s Alpha, Arun Chowdhury’s Mayaboti, Pradip Ghosh’s Shuttle Train, N Rashed Chowdhury’s Chandrabati Kotha! (The Tales of Chandra), Farid Ahmad’s Tunes of Nostalgia, Masud Pothik’s Maya - The Lost Mother, Proshoon Rahamaan’s Nigrohokal (Long Period of Persecution), Impress Telefilm anthology Iti, Tomari Dhaka, Tauquir Ahmed’s Fagun Hawa, and Taneem Rahman Angshu’s No Dorai.
The Festival has been organized on a regular basis by the Rainbow Film Society, which has been dedicated to the promotion of a healthy cine culture in Bangladesh and to celebrating the global mainstream in film and its social relevance since 1977.
The 18th DIFF will screen about 220 films, with participation from around 74 countries. The festival will have competitions in its Asian Cinema Section, Retrospective, Bangladesh Panorama Section, Cinema of the World Section, Children Films Section, Women Filmmakers Section, Short and Independent Films Section and Spiritual Films Section.
All the film screenings will be held at the capital’s Alliance Francaise de Dhaka, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Central Public Library Auditorium, National Museum Auditorium, Madhumita Cinema Hall and Star Cineplex.
The country’s biggest film festival will begin on January 11 and run till January 19.
