Ahmed Mostafa Zamal, Festival Director, Dhaka International Film Festival

Mr.Md. Shahriar Alam, MP, Honourable State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Chief Patron of the Festival

Dignitaries, ladies, and gentlemen,

Good afternoon.

I am indeed very happy to join you for the opening of the 18^th Dhaka International Film Festival organized by the Rainbow Film Society. It is good to know that from a humble beginning in 1992,the DIFF has turned out to be a premier film event in Bangladesh and is increasingly contributing to shaping a healthy and positive national film culture in Bangladesh.

            I am happy to be here is that the festival is taking place in 2020, which the government has declared as the ‘Mujib Year’when the country will be celebrating the birth centenary of the Father of our Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the greatestBengalee of all times.It was the Father of the Nation who tabled a bill in the provincial assembly of erstwhile East Pakistan for the formation of Film Development Corporation (FDC) in 1957,which eventually became BFDC after the independence of Bangladesh,laying the foundation of Bangladesh’s Film Industry. As part of the commemoration of Bangabandhu’s birth centenary, the governments of Bangladesh and India are jointly producing a feature film on the life and works of Father of the Nation to be released on 17 March 2021 and screened all over the world through Bangladesh Missions abroad.

            Although in recent years the film industry in Bangladesh has seen some decadence, Bangladeshi filmmakers have indeed produced many internationally acclaimed films. Many of these films were based on the glorious liberation war of Bangladesh. In recent times, those is potential yet owing to Bollywood’s strong influence, there is shortage of quality films.  International film festivals like this provide an excellent platformforlocal filmmakers to showcase the quality of their films.It also creates space for young and aspiring filmmakers to connect with global artistic trends, exclusive ideas of great producers.

            Films evoke a range of thoughts and emotions in us – in entertaining and amusing us, in capturing our imagination and sense of wonder, in inviting us to be more empathetic, in inspiring and uplifting us, in provoking us to think and reflect, and in challenging our values and worldviews.

A good film may activate the inner strength, abilities, and patriotism inside us. The Dhaka International Film Festivalis expected to showcase many such powerful films, providing for the audience a window to forman enlightened world view, which is all the more essential at the present juncture of time when the world is beset with manyscourges such as racism, hatred, intolerance, extremism and political divisions. I hope and wish our film makers will think of producing films on the plight of displaced people of Myanmar Rohingya and so on life and living contributions of expatriate workers that are contributing to both host and home countries.

            Storytelling through the film is an important part of how we build and examine our identity as individuals, as a society, and as a nation. Thank you to everyone involved in filmmaking for your labor of love that helps us to understand ourselves and those around us better, and for helping usto form an enlightened worldview. Please continue telling our and your stories and carrying our voices, hopes, and dreams, to the rest of the world through your films. It is also important to build modern movie theaters and Cinema Halls in each district of the country.

            My heartiest congratulations to the organizers for regularly hosting this international film festival in Dhaka. The festival would hopefully provide a bulwark against vulgarism and commercialism in the film industry andhelp topromotea healthy film culture in the country.

            I wish the festival all success.

Joy Bangla, Joy Bangabandhu!