Liberation War Affairs Minister A K M Mozammel Haque attended the closing ceremony as chief guest. Director General of Dhaka Film Archive Bidhan Chandra Karmakar, Mass Communication and Journalism department of DU Chairman and one of the jury board members of this festival Kaberi Gayen, festival director Tarek Ahmed, eminent cultural persona and Chairman of Dhaka DocLab Nasiruddin Yusuf Bacchu, Cinematographer and one of the trainers in this workshop Nilotpal Majumdar and Trustee Board members of Liberation War Museum Mofidul Haque and Robiul Hossain were present among the guests.

Read Top Historical Landmarks in Dhaka Reminding Liberation War of 1971

“The real scenario of the massive genocide happened at our Liberation War is by far one of the most horrific tragedies in history, and I urge our young directors to step up and portray the situations and emotions through their films,” said Mozammel Haque .

The festival started on 18th April at the Liberation War Museum at Agargaon, Dhaka. The theme of this year’s festival was Rohingya Persecution.

Jury board member Kaberi Gayen awarded director Fuad Chaudhury’s film ‘Merciless Mayhem’ as the best documentary among the 6 documentary films  that were part of the main competition, titled as ‘1971 and Beyond’. 

A total of 12 young directors presented their projects in the special workshop titled ‘Exposition of Young Film Talent’. Rafiqul Islam Anowar’s project ‘Mandolin in Exile’ was nominated for the best project award while Priyanka Acharya’s ‘Muktijuddhe Tripura’ was nominated for the special project award. Also Krishnakali Islam’s ‘NOC’ was nominated for Doc Lab’s special prize.   

The festival committee announced the theme of next year’s festival titled as ‘Bangabandhu: The Liberator’ with a vision to celebrate the centenary of the father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.