250 films from 75 countries to be screened at this year's DIFF

Once again, the traditional 'Dhaka International Film Festival' is starting in January. The 23rd edition of this year's edition with the slogan 'Aesthetic Films, Contemplative Audiences, Enlightened Society' will begin on January 11 and will continue until January 19.

As always, the Rainbow Film Society will be the organizer of the 'Dhaka International Film Festival'. The venues for the film screening will be the Shilpakala Academy, National Museum Auditorium, Russian Cultural Center and Alias Français auditorium as before.

A total of 250 films from 75 countries will be screened at the festival in 10 categories. Festival director Ahmed Mujtaba Jamal said, 'So far, 8 films have been finalized in the Bangladesh Panorama section of the 23rd edition. These are Kusum Sikder's ‘Shoroter Joba’, Mehedi Roni's 'Ekhane Nongor', Dhrubo Hasan's 'Fatima', Niyamul Hasan Mukta's 'Rokto Joba', Iqbal Hossain Chowdhury's 'Boli', Tanvir Muhammad's 'Bataser Fena', Biplob Sarkar's 'Agantuk' and Toufiq Elahi's 'Neelpadma'. Among them, our country's talked-about film Bali will be shown on the last day of the festival. The hyped film Boli won the best film award in the New Currents section of the Busan International Film Festival last year.
In addition, about 40 short films will also be shown at the festival. This time, about 12 Iranian films will also be screened at the festival. Therefore, it can be said that this year's Dhaka International Film Festival is going to be quite diverse! Famous film actor of Bangladesh Ilias Kanchan will serve as a judge in the Asian Film Competition section. He was a member of the jury board once before. This category will also feature Chinese screenwriter and director Zhang Yudi, Mongolian actress Mungunzul Amgalanbaatar, British filmmaker and teacher Dragan Milinkovic, and Norwegian film distributor Age Hofert. In addition, the surprise of the 23rd edition will be the presence of actress Ajmeri Haque Badhan, known as Rehana Mariam Noor, as a judge on the jury board. She will serve in the Women Filmmaker category of the festival. She will also be joined by Bangladeshi actress and director Lisa Gazi, Chinese Mei Po Rainbow Fong, and Iranian actress Huda Moghaddam Manish.

The country's largest and most prestigious film festival, the 'Dhaka International Film Festival', began its journey in 1992. The festival was organized to introduce local filmmakers to filmmakers from outside the film world and to promote a healthy film culture in Bangladesh. The organizers hope that the festival will win the hearts of film lovers this time too, in line with the changing situation in Bangladesh.