Entertainment Desk: The 23rd edition of the Dhaka International Film Festival is being held on Saturday (January 11). This year’s slogan is ‘Aesthetic Films, Contemplative Audiences, Enlightened Society.’. This year, 220 films from 75 countries will be screened in 9 categories at the festival.
The opening ceremony will be held at 4 pm on Saturday, January 11, at the main auditorium of the National Museum in the capital. Information and Broadcasting Advisor Md. Nahid Islam will be present as the chief guest.
The band Jole Gaan will perform at the opening ceremony. ‘Moon Man,’ directed by China’s Qiu Zhang, will be shown as the opening film. In addition, a poster exhibition of Chinese films will also be inaugurated to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Bangladesh and China. This year, China will be the country focus of the festival.
Like the past few years, this year’s festival will include master classes and women filmmakers’ conferences. Apart from this, there will be special film and painting exhibitions in memory of the martyrs of the July-August mass uprising.
This time, the festival’s films will be screened at the National Museum’s main auditorium and Poet Sufia Kamal Auditorium, the Shilpakala Academy’s National Art Gallery, Alliance Frauen Auditorium, NorthSouth University Auditorium, and Green University Auditorium.
At a press conference on January 9, Ahmed Mujtaba Jamal, president of the organizing organization Rainbow Film Society, said that the Dhaka International Film Festival has succeeded in creating a platform for young and promising filmmakers to connect with the international film industry, as well as strengthening the similar film industry of Bangladesh. The main objective of this international festival is to present all the new films of renowned filmmakers from all over the world to the audience.
The curtain will be raised on this 9-day festival on January 19. Cultural Advisor Mustafa Sarwar Farooqui will be the chief guest on this day. Iqbal Hossain Chowdhury’s ‘Boli’ will be screened as the closing film of the festival.
