The 23rd Dhaka International Film Festival (DIFF) will begin on 11 January 2025 Saturday. The festival will continue till 19 January 2025 Sunday.
The festival will showcase 220 films from 75 countries with the Theme “Better Film, Better Audience, Better Society.”
The flagship yearly film festival of Bangladesh, this year’s nine-day festival in six venues in Dhaka will become a rendezvous for many local and foreign filmmakers, artists, critics, and film enthusiasts, where Bangladesh will be represented through 44 films.
Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology and Ministry of Information Adviser Nahid Islam will inaugurate the festival as the chief guest at the main auditorium of the Bangladesh National Museum at 4 pm on 11 January 2025 Saturday,
Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Yao Wen and the Chinese Film Administration’s International Director Shu Yang will join the inauguration ceremony as the special guests.
Festival Committee Executive Member and Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Jalal Ahmed will preside over the opening ceremony.
A press conference was arranged at Dhaka Club on 09 January 2025 Thursday where the DIFF Director Ahmed Muztaba Jamal, festival committee Chairperson Kishwar Kamal, Asian Competition Section Jury Board member actor Ilias Kanchan, festival committee Executive Member and Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Jalal Ahmed, festival committee member Journalist Rafikuzzaman, Masterclass and media in-charge Bidhan Riberu, and Conference Director of Women in Cinema Conference Sadia Khalid Reeti briefed journalists.
“Since 1992, the Rainbow Film Society has been organizing the Dhaka International Film Festival with support from different organizations. Unfortunately, the support is decreasing day by day. To continue this acclaimed festival in the future, we need proper financial assistance from the government and elite members and corporations in society, which is the driving force behind every other successful film festival across the world,” Ahmed Muztaba Zamal said at the press conference.
The festival this year will open with the Chinese science fiction comedy film ‘Moon Man,’ co-written and directed by Zhang Chiyu, and China will be the ‘Country Focus’ at this year’s festival. Popular Bangladeshi band Joler Gaan will also perform at the inauguration ceremony.
Moviegoers will be welcomed at different venues of the 23rd edition of this annual film festival, including Bangladesh National Museum; Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA); Alliance Française de Dhaka (AFD), Dhanmondi; Green University of Bangladesh; and North South University in the capital.
The films will be screened under the Asian Competition Section, Retrospective Section, Bangladesh Panorama, Wide Angle, Cinema of the World, Children’s Film, Spiritual Films, Short and Independent Film, and Women’s Film Session.
Central Women’s University Vice Chancellor Dr Parveen Hasan will be present as the chief guest on the opening day of the ’11th International Women Filmmakers Conference’ at Dhaka Club’s Samson Lounge on 12 January 2025 Sunday at 9:30 am, which will be chaired by DIFF Chairperson Kishwar Kamal.
ActionAid Bangladesh Country Director Farah Kabir and Chinese film director and writer Zhang Yudi will be special guests at the conference.
Commemorating the martyrs of the July-August uprising, seven short films will be screened at this year’s DIFF on January 12, 15, 16 and 17. The venues for these screenings are the Sufia Kamal Auditorium of the National Museum, the Green University of Bangladesh Auditorium, the National Art Gallery Auditorium of the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, and the Auditorium of North South University, respectively.
Apart from this, a unique painting exhibition is being organised at the La Galerie of Alliance Française de Dhaka (AFD) on 09 to 17January 2025, as part of the festival. It will include works by both new and veteran artists.
The two-day masterclass is going to be held for the third time at DIFF on January 17-18 this year. Chinese writer and film director Zhang Yudi, Serbian film scholar Prof. Dragen Milinkovic, Norwegian film producer and distributor Augie Hoffert, and Bangladeshi cinematographer Rashed Zaman will speak in this masterclass, to be held at the Cineplex auditorium of the National Museum.
Ministry of Cultural Affairs Adviser Mostafa Sarwar Farooki will be the chief guest of the 23rd Dhaka International Film Festival (DIFF)’s concluding ceremony on 19 January 2025 Sunday at the National Museum.
