DOT Desk
A Short film festival spanning the vicinity of not just one venue but the entire country is starting from yesterday, reports The Daily Observer. This would be the second time this festival has been organised in all the sixty-four districts of Bangladesh. Like its previous edition this year’s festival too has been organised by Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. After running for eight consecutive days the festival will end on December 15. It will be held at all the district level branches of Shilpakala Academy including its head office in Segunbagicha, Dhaka. In total seventy films will be screened for free during the festival. Cultural Minister Asaduzzaman Noor will inaugurate the festival today at 5pm at National Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in Segunbagicha in the capital city.
In today’s inaugural session also present would be filmmaker Manzare Hasin Murid, Bangladesh Short Film Forum President Zahidur Rahman Anjan, Bangladesh Chalachitra Parichalak Samity President Mushfiqur Rahman Gulzar among others.
On the final day of the festival awards will be handed over in three different categories-Best Director, Best Film and Special Jury Mention. Prize moneys of the three categories have been fixed at one lac, fifty thousand and twenty-five thousand taka.
A jury committee with veteran filmmaker Syed Salahuddin Zaki in the head and with film activists Morshedul Islam, Anupam Hayat and Faridur Rahman as jurors will select the winners of the best prizes. Earlier submissions were invited from aspiring participants in short film and documentary categories. Of the seventy selected films forty-eight are short films while the remaining twenty-two are documentaries.
A jury board made the final selection of seventy films. The board comprised of experts like Fahmidul Haque, faculty member at Department of Mass Communication and Journalism; Sazzad Jahir, advisor of Bangladesh Documentary Film Council; Aka Reza Ghalib, member of Bangladesh Short Film Forum; Belayet Hossain Mamun, general secretary of Federation of Film Societies of Bangladesh and Chaklader Mostofa Al-Masoud, Assistant Director of Department of Dramatics and Films at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.