Bangladeshi film critic, screenwriter, and journalist Sadia Khalid Reeti has joined the panel of jurors for the international section of the 41st Tehran International Short Film Festival (TISFF) alongside the Oscar-winning Indian music composer AR Rahman.
Reeti confirmed this in a Facebook post on Thursday, sharing her excitement to be nominated as a jury member alongside Rahman and other esteemed jurors. “Sharing the stage with AR Rahman as a jury member of the super prestigious, Oscar-qualifying, Tehran International Short Film Festival. So blessed,” she wrote.
Bangladeshi critic Sadia Khalid Reeti walks official Cannes Red Carpet as FIPRESCI jury member
Other members of this year's festival jury include the Ghanaian-Belgian director Anthony Nti, Italian filmmaker Maja Costa, and Russian festival producer Ekaterina Yakovleva, as well as Iranian filmmakers Ahmad Reza Motamedi and Masoud Madadi, according to Tehran Times and IRNA.
A member of the recently announced National Film Grant Selection Committee and National Film Advisory Committee, Reeti was the sole representative from Bangladesh at the 77th Cannes Film Festival this year, as a member of the FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) jury.
She served on the FIPRESCI jury for the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes this year, which marked her second tenure on the jury at the festival, following her 2019 participation in Critics’ Week and Directors’ Fortnight.
Bollywood’s iconic music composer AR Rahman is globally revered for redefining contemporary music through his works in Indian cinema—predominantly in Tamil and Hindi films, with occasional forays in international cinema.
The Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, musician, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist's work gained global prominence particularly in 2008, with the extraordinary success of his score for the film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ that received eight Oscars including two for Rahman. He won over 15 awards for this score including two Grammys, the Golden Globe and the BAFTA.
This year’s Tehran International Short Film Festival received a record-breaking 13,651 submissions from more than 30 countries including India, China, Poland, the United States, Egypt, Greece, France, Palestine, Turkey, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Russia, Australia, Japan, Germany, Italy, and Cuba, among others.