With 225 films from 70 countries, the Dhaka International Film Festival (DIFF) will raise its curtain Saturday.

One hundred and twenty-five full-length feature films and 96 short and independent films are scheduled to enthral the moviegoers at the festival, where Bangladesh will be represented through 18 full-length feature films and 22 short and independent films.

The films will be screened at the Bangladesh National Museum, Alliance Francaise de Dhaka, Star Cineplex, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Sufia Kamal National Public Library and the academy auditorium of the foreign ministry.

They will be screened under 10 categories – Asian cinema competition section, retrospective, wide angle, tribute, Bangladesh panorama, cinema of the world, children films, women filmmakers, short and independent films and spiritual films.

The nine-day DIFF is going to be inaugurated at the main auditorium of the Bangladesh National Museum at 4pm.

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen will inaugurate the festival as the chief guest. State Minister for Cultural Affairs KM Khalid and Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Vikram K Doraiswami will join it as special guests.

The DIFF will also feature the Eighth Dhaka International Conference on Women in Cinema 2022 at the Samson Lounge, Dhaka Club from January 16-17 and West Meets East: Screenplay Lab from January 16-19 at Alliance Francaise de Dhaka.

Thursday, a press conference was arranged at Dhaka Club in the capital where the festival director Ahmed Muztaba Zamal, DIFF Chairperson Kishwar Kamal, Secretary at the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism and DIFF Executive Committee Member Md Mokammel Hossain, Dhaka Club President Khandaker Mashiuzzaman Romel, Iranian filmmaker and DIFF head programmer Zohreh Zamani, festival executive committee member Jalal Ahmed, and patron committee member journalist Shyamal Dutta briefed the journos.

Rainbow Film Society has been organising the DIFF every year since 1992.