The eight-day long 17th Bangladesh International Short and Independent Film Festival organised by Bangladesh Short Film Forum concluded at the National Museum in the capital on Friday.
Besides screening films, the concluding day programme featured an awards ceremony.
Tariq Rimawi鈥檚 Yemeni animation Zoo won Best international film award in the fiction category while United States documentary titled Allies Welcome jointly directed by Shakeeb Asrar and Tavleen Tarrant bagged Best international film award in the documentary category and Shakti Banik-directed film Antareen won the Tarek Shariar Best Independent Shorts Award 2024.
Adviser to the Ministry of Cultural Affairs Mustafa Sarwar Farooki was present as chief guest while artist-curator Wakilur Rahman and chief economist and country business manager of City Bank Md Ashanur Rahman attended the event as special guests.
Festival director Syed Imran Hossain Kirmani delivered the welcome speech and president of the BSFF Zahirul Islam chaired the event.
Wakilur Rahman said that it was time to think about how film festivals accommodate diverse genre films for the audience because of the film culture developing a lot in the past 20 years.
Md Ashanur Rahman said that artists needed to be conscious about politics and should portray people鈥檚 aspirations, democracy and promote people鈥檚 democratic rights.
The nation needs a cultural healing process, mentioned Mustafa Sarwar Farooki, adding, 鈥業 think the ministry of cultural affairs and the information ministry need specialised officials to deal with international cultural and technological issues.鈥�
The special screenings of award-winning films were held following the awards ceremony.
The festival comprised 276 films from over 100 countries, including 40 films from Bangladesh. 聽
