Bangladesh Short Film Forum on Wednesday announced the schedule of their forthcoming 17th Bangladesh International Short and Independent Film Festival with some of its members issuing a call to boycott the festival.
The eight-day festival to be inaugurated on December 20, will showcase 276 films from over 100 countries.
The festival will be dedicated to martyrs of the July-August student-led uprising and artist SM Sultan, said a press release.
Adviser to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Md Nahid Islam will attend the festival as chief guest while photographer Nasir Ali Mamun and novelist Mashrur Arefin will attend it as special guests at the Main Auditorium of the National Museum at the inaugural ceremony.
鈥楢 film titled The Dream, The Fight, The Victory based on the July-August uprising, will be screened on December 23.
Besides, Palestine has been selected as the Country Focus segment for this year鈥檚 festival. Eight fiction films from Palestine will be screened at the Sufia
Kamal Auditorium of the National Museum on
December 25,鈥� said Zahirul Islam, president of the Bangladesh Short Film Forum.
The festival will be directed by Syed Imran Hossain Kirmani.
Filmmaker-researchers Tanvir Mokammel, Morshedul Islam and Manzare Hassin Murad, meanwhile, issued a press release from the BSFF suspending the festival.聽聽聽
They also made a call to boycott the festival if anyone attempted to organise the festival.
Although they are the founders of the forum but they do not work on the executive committee, they have no authority to use the forum pad, said Zahirul Islam.
The festival is scheduled to conclude on December 27 with a closing and awards ceremony.
Mustafa Sarwar Farooki, adviser to the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, will attend the festival as chief guest, said Zahirul.
