Staff Reporter :
The 14th Dhaka International Film Festival is scheduled to kick off today at the National Museum in the city’s Shahbagh area.
The programme for the festival was revealed on Wednesday during a press conference held by Rainbow Film Society at Dhaka Club.
Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu will be the chief guest at the inauguration while State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam will preside over the session.
Renowned Syrian filmmaker Mohamed Malas and Norwegian filmmaker Anja Breien will light the candle of inauguration.
The 8-day festival will begin with the Bangladeshi film Under Construction by Rubaiyat Hossain.
Speaking at the press conference, Festival Director Ahmed Mustaba Zamal Shovon said that films from altogether 60 countries will be exhibited at this international event, which ends on January 22.
The general theme of this year’s festival is “Better Film, Better Audience, Better Society.” Approximately 170 films will be screened in the festival.
The festival will have a competition section for Asian and Australian cinema and segment categories for ‘Retrospective,’ ‘Cinema of the World,’ ‘Children’s Film,’ ‘Women Filmmakers,’ ‘Short and Independent Films Section,’ ‘Nordic Film Session’ and ‘Spiritual Films Section.’
Several well-known film makers from various countries will be participating in person in this year’s event.
Among the highlights of this year’s biennial is the ‘2nd International Conference on Women in Cinema,’ the participants of which will include film makers, film activists, professors and historians.
The film exhibition venues this year will be the National Museum Auditorium, the Central Public Library Auditorium, Alliance Française de Dhaka and the Edward M Kennedy Center.
