Film Festival

One of the Golden Palm Award winning films Kagemusha (1980)

Le Festival International des Films de Cannes or the Cannes International Film Festival has been organised annually since 1946. The first film festival at Cannes was supposed to be inaugurated on September 1, 1939. But as the Second World War broke out with the German invasion of Poland on that very day, the festival could not be held. Cannes is considered the best competitive film festival in the world. Berlin Film Festival in Germany and Venice Film Festival in Italy come next in the order. Each year, the Golden Palm is given to the Best Film in the Competition Section by a jury comprised of international filmmakers, film critics, film stars and writers. The festival is usually held in May each year. The selection includes some of the very best Golden Palm winning films from its 57-year history.

Bangladesh Federation of Film Societies (BFFS) is the coordinating body of all the active film societies of the country. It has been working since 1975 to coordinate the activities of the film societies and to organise programmes to spread the film society movement all over the country. Recently, the Executive Committee of BFFS has been reconstructed for the betterment of the film society movement of the country.

BFFS has undertaken a series of programmes, including the monthly Hiralal Sen Memorial Lectures, a workshop on film criticism, focus on the best film festivals in the world and Best Foreign Language Academy Award-winning films, the First Bangladesh National Conference on Film (on September 22-24, 2004), the Bangladesh International Film Festival 2004 (on December3-10, 2004). It has also undertaken to produce a documentary film on the film society movement in Bangladesh, to be made by Shameem Akhtar, renowned independent filmmaker of the country.

A press conference was held recently at Dhaka Reporters' Unity (DRU) to announce the future programmes of BFFS. The Festival Organising Committee of the International Film Festival Bangladesh 2004 was also announced. Chashi Nazrul Islam, eminent film director and President of Film Directors' Association, has been nominated as the Chairperson, K.M.R. Manzur, President of Film Producers' and Distributors' Association; Ahmed Sharif, President of Film Artists' Association; and Abdul Latif Bachchu, President of Cinematographers' Association, have been nominated as the Joint Vice-Chairpersons while eminent filmmaker Morshedul Islam has been nominated as the Director of the Festival. The festival will be held on December 2-10, 2004. The festival slogan is 'Film for World Peace'. A total of 70 films will be screened in the festival in different sections.