Magnolia

In the second of the series of film sessions focusing on the best film festivals in the world, Bangladesh Federation of Film Societies (BFFS) and Goethe-Institut Dhaka will jointly organise 'Celebrating Berlin Film Festival'- screening of 9 'Golden Bear' winning films from Berlin Film Festival on 21-23 August, 2004. These films will be screened at the auditorium of the Goethe-Institut Dhaka at Road No. 9, Dhanmondi. Three films will be screened each day. The selection includes some of the very best 'Golden Bear'-winning films from Berlin. In the first of this series, 10 'Golden Palm'-winning films from Cannes Film Festival were screened at the Russian Cultural Centre at Dhanmondi on 9-11 July, 2004.

The 'Internationale Film-festspiele Berlin' ('Berlinale') or the Berlin International Film Festival has been organised annually since 1951. The first film festival at Berlin was held from 6 to 18 June, 1951. From 1951 to 1977, the festival dates were set in summer, in June-July. Since 1978, the festival is being organized in February-March. Berlin Film Festival is acknowledged to be an official film festival by the International Federation of Film Producers (FIAPF) since 1956. Berlin is considered the second best competitive film festival in the world, next only to Cannes Film Festival of France. Each year, the 'Golden Berlin Bear' is given to the Best Film in the Competition Section by a jury comprised of international filmmakers, film critics, film artistes and writers.

Some of the famous filmmakers whose films were awarded at Berlin are: Henri-Georges Clouzot, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Bertrand Tavernier and Patrice Chereau from France; Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Werner Schroeter, Peter Lilienthal, Reinhard Hauff and Fatih Akin from Germany; Vittorio de Sica, Michelangelo Antonioni and Pier Paolo Pasolini from Italy; Ingmar Bergman (Sweden), Satyajit Ray (India), Milos Forman (Czechoslovakia), Roman Polanski (Poland), Costa-Gavras (Greece), Zhang Yimou (China), Ang Lee (Taiwan), Walter Salles (Brazil) and Michael Winterbottom (UK).

In the third session of the ongoing focus on international film festivals, BFFS will screen ten 'Golden Lion'-winning films from Venice Film Festival in September. Next in the series are focus on Moscow International Film Festival and Best Foreign Language Academy Award-winning films. BFFS is the federative and coordinating and federative body with representatives from all the active film societies in Bangladesh.