Goa Film Bazaar, the annual film market run by the National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC), shortlisted two Bangladeshi film projects for the 11th edition of the market. Taneem Rahman’s “Badhonhin (Free)” and Amit Ashraf’s “Omni” made it to the list of the 18 finalists, which was published last week.
The short-listed participants will be called up for an open pitch session at Film Bazaar 2017, to be held at Goa’s Marriott Resort from November 20-24, where the selected filmmakers will pitch their projects to an audience of international producers, financiers and sales agents.
Among the two selected directors from Bangladesh, Taneem introduced the use of visual effects in television dramas of Bangladesh and created dialogue based musical stories in the music video industry. The budding director has directed several TV Fictions and documentaries so far and already debutted in the silver screen. Taneem has two other feature films to his credit- “Aadi” and “Shopnobari”. Badhonhin will be produced by Mahboob Rahman, chairman of ShowMotion Limited (Star Cineplex).
Meanwhile, this is not Amit Ashraf’s first time on the shortlist for GOA – Film Bazaar as his debut feature, Udhao, which premiered at the Goteborg International Film Festival and went on to win several awards at other festivals across the globe, had made it onto a previous edition of the list. Aside from his recent silver screen venture, Amit produced a sci-fi teledrama and a super-heroine series titled “Kali”. The series by the Tisch Film School graduate has attracted a cult following in Bangladesh.
“Omni” will be produced by Jenny Walker of FoR Films. In a career spanning over 10 years, Jenny has been involved with several notable and award-winning documentaries and docu-dramas for top-notch UK broadcasters, including BBC, C4 and ITV.
The Film Bazaar alumni in Bangladesh includes Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, who has secured grants for both his 2012 feature “Television” and upcoming film “Doob: No Bed of Roses,” from the biggest co-production market in the sub-continent.In addition, another one of Farooki's recently announced ventures, titled “No Land’s Man” from his coming “Identity” trilogy, received grants from the Bazaar by winning the Most Promising Project in Film Bazaar in 2014.
Over the last 10 years, Film Bazaar has become a must-visit event for filmmakers to present their stories to the international film fraternity. Each year, more than 200 films from across South Asia are pitched to various sales agents, buyers, film festival programmers and financiers from all over the world.
Thursday, April 25, 2024
