9th Dhaka International Film Festival

Ahmed Muztaba Jamal, festival director and secretary general of Rainbow Film Society, Margub Morshed, chairperson of the festival, Mashihuddin Shaker, renowned filmmaker, Shah Alamgir, news editor of Channel-i and Badal Rahman spoke on the occasion.

Jamal, in his speech said, "Cinema has emerged as an extremely influential medium. In Bangladesh however, many of the recent movies produced, are full of violence and vulgarity. Yet cinema retains its influence over the majority of our population. In the post revolutionary periods in Russia, Eastern Europe, Iran, and elsewhere, movies played a vital role in building 'approved' social values in the populace. Unfortunately, in Bangladesh, cinema as a positive social force is often manipulated by profit seeking businessmen turned moviemakers for whom art is not a concern. Bangladeshi audience need to be exposed to quality international cinema so that our society can experience cinema as an art form."

About 150 films will be screened at the festival, with participation from over 30 countries. The festival will have a competition section for movies from the 'Austral-asian' (Australian and Asian) countries. Other categories in the festival include, 'Retrospective', 'Tributes', 'Cinema of the World', 'Children's Films', 'Focus on Australia', 'Bangladesh Panorama', 'Independent Films', 'French Classics', and 'Women's Films'.

The festival organisers plan to screen films from Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Congo, The Peoples' Republic of China, The Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Iran, Ireland, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Russia, South Korea, North Korea, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, USA and Bangladesh.

A series of seminars by international speakers will be held on January 19 and 20, 2006. The theme of this year's series is "Better Films, better audience, better society."

The festival and seminars will be held at Star Cineplex, Shaukat Osman Memorial Auditorium at the Central Public Library, Shaheed Zia Auditorium at National Museum and German Cultural Centre. Other possible venues include Balaka Cinema Hall.

This festival is to be organised by Rainbow Film Society in association with the Royal Norwegian Embassy, the Australian High Commission, the French Embassy, SIGNIS - Brussels, Mindshare, and MCG. Media partners of the event include Channel-i and Tara Bangla.