It was a total delight in disorder. The Hall-4 of Star Cineplex was filled with enthusiasm of youngsters on Thursday afternoon. Seated in groups, they cheered and greeted their fellow filmmakers by applause, while the films were being screened one after another.

The Grand Finale of the STAR-BRACU Short Film Contest 2018, with the theme 'Drug abuse and its Prevention in Bangladesh from Your Perspective'. The contest started much earlier on Facebook, and concluded through the finale on the level 8 of Bashundhara City. 

Students of 11 universities uploaded their three-minute films on the subject of drug abuse to a designated Facebook page between February 25 and March 10. The three best films were selected by a combination of jury opinion and Facebook user voting. Dwip Roy became the champion for his film “Tomosha” (“The Darkness”), while “Cage”, made by Tahmid Raqib Atul of Independent University and “The Murderer” by Tanjil Sultan Khan Turjo of American International University-Bangladesh jointly secured the second position. Sayed Safqat Hossain Galib from BRAC University became third, with his film called “Shongbidhiboddho Shotorkikoron” (“Statutory Warning”).

The contest was jointly organised by Star Cineplex and BRAC University, where the participating universities were BRAC University, Independent University Bangladesh, North South University, East West University, Bangladesh University of Professionals, Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology, Military Institute of Science and Technology, United International University, University of Liberal Arts and Daffodil University.

At the grand finale, 19 short films made by the youngsters were screened back-to-back, followed by opinions of the jury members - Suborna Mustafa, Afsana Mimi and Giasuddin Selim. Suborna Mustafa addressed the students, saying, “This is your beginning, as today's passion can be tomorrow's profession for you.” Afsana Mimi also congratulated the makers of all 19 films. Giasuddin Selim expressed that he found it difficult to select three best films, as most of them were very good.

Star Cineplex Chairman Mahbub Rahman, who handed over the awards to the winners, said, “This is for the third time that we are arranging this kind of contest and we have different themes every time. It is the youth who are to come up with solutions of big problems, which is why we are involving them to make films on crucial subjects such as road accident, drug abuse etc.,” he added. He also said that the champion will get an opportunity to make a film to be screened internationally.

The writer is a contributor at The Daily Star.