Several Sri Lankan productions have been selected for the 22nd Dhaka International Film Festival, with Guru Geethaya (Let Me Fly) by Upali Gamlath and The Newspaper by Sarath Kothalawala and Kumara Thirimadura competing in the Asian Film Competition, the winner of which will be picked by an international jury, along with awards for best director, best actor, best actress, best script, and best cinematographer.
Other movies selected for the competition include The Coffin Painter by Dafei (China), Bi-Madar (Motherless) by Seyyed Morteza Fatemi (Iran), Mahanagar (One Night in Kathmandu) by Mohan Rai (Nepal), and Meros (The Legacy) by Khilol Nasimov (Uzbekistan).
Veteran dramaturge M. Safeer’s directorial movie debut Hereafter Bygone and Aruna Jayawardana’s Maariya have been selected under the Cinema of the World category, along with movies like Shoebox by Faraz Ali (India), Tak Tirandaz (Sniper) by Ali Ghafari (Iran), and Kobane by Özlem Yaşar (Syria).
Our Mother, Grandmother, Prime Minister: Sirimavo by Anomaa Rajakaruna has been selected under the Woman Filmmaker category, while Praana (Seeds) by Sanjaya Nirmal has been selected under the Spiritual Film category.
In addition to this, M. Safeer stated that he has been invited to be part of the selection committee of West Meet East Screenplay Lab, a South Asian project held concurrently with the festival.
The movies will be screened at the Bangladesh National Museum, where the film festival is scheduled to take place from 14 to 22 January. This year, the Dhaka International Film Festival will showcase 254 films from 70 countries, with the aim of promoting better films, better audiences, and a better society. In addition to the Asian Film Competition, World Cinema, Woman Filmmaker, and Spiritual Films, the film festival is also highlighting categories such as retrospective movies, wide angle, Bangladesh panorama, children’s films, and short and independent movies.