Bangladeshi short-film selected in Oscar qualifying film festival
Hemanta Sadeeq's short-film, "LIFE: Low Budget Short Film" has recently been selected at the Academy Awards Qualifying Film Festival, titled 'Short Shorts'. The festival will take place between June 6 and 26, in Tokyo, Japan. The short-film was selected under the 'Smartphone Film Competition' category.
Established in 1999 with the assistance of the Governor of Tokyo, the festival is currently among the largest short-film festivals in Asia. According to the organisers, this year's celebration will also mark the 25th anniversary of the festival.
"When it comes to low budget short-films, we can never be satisfied with the production process due to various tensions. Sometimes, I feel that life itself is like a low-budget short film," shared Hemanta. "These issues are portrayed in the film as well. It also tells the story of some inequalities that exist in our society. Since the film was shot on a mobile phone in a very experimental way, we were actually confused if it would be able to communicate properly with the audience. That is why the news of this festival has made us happy and encouraged us to experiment more in the future."
Sohel Ahmed, one of the producers of the film, shared, "To be honest, I was not very optimistic about the film at first. So, when I received the news, the first thing I did was to confirm it on the official website of the Academy Award Qualifying Film Festival. Amongst hundreds of films from all over the world, our film made it to the selected 16 films under the 'Smartphone Film Competition' category—I can't put in words just how proud I felt at that moment."
"LIFE: Low Budget Short Film" stars Asma Akhtar Liza, Ruhul Rahman Sohail, Adnan Chowdhury, and Mizan Rahman, among others.
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