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“Mujib: The Making of a Nation,” the biopic of late Bangladeshi leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, is currently in post-production and a teaser will be unveiled at the Cannes Market in May.

Popularly known as Bangabandhu (friend of Bengal), Rahman was one of the founders of the Awami League party and led the movement for political autonomy for East Pakistan and the subsequent formation of independent Bangladesh in 1971. He served as the first president and then the first prime minister of Bangladesh until he was assassinated in an army coup in 1975. His daughter Sheikh Hasina is the current Prime Minister of Bangladesh.

The film is directed by veteran Indian filmmaker Shyam Benegal. It is a Bangladesh-India co-production between the Bangladesh Film Development Corporation and India’s National Film Development Corporation. THe two organizations are jointly handling international rights sales.

Arifin Shuvoo, best actor winner at the Bangladesh National Film Awards for “Dhaka Attack,...

Abu Shahed Emon, a Bangladeshi filmmaker with close ties to Busan, is back at the festival with “No Ground Beneath the Feet,” directed by debutant Mohammad Rabby Mridha. He braved two weeks of quarantine to be in Busan in person.

The film, which premieres at the festival’s ‘A Window on Asian Cinema’ strand, follows the travails of an ambulance driver in Dhaka and the struggles of his wife in a slowly shrinking river delta, while tackling universal themes of climate change, poverty and societal ills. The cast includes Mostafa Monwar, who won best performance at the 2016 Singapore International Film Festival for “Live from Dhaka”), Priyam Archi and Deepanwita Martin (“Made in Bangladesh”).

Emon has been busy during the pandemic and will continue being so in the months to come. As a producer, he has a raft of films in various stages of production via his Golpo Rajjo Films.

Drama...

While the Academy has not yet released the full official list, these are the films Variety has learned have been submitted by various countries in the international film race. The shortlist will be announced Feb. 9 and the nominations on March 15. The Academy Awards ceremony takes place on April 25.

Albania Open Door

Director: Florenc Papas

Key Cast: Luli Bitri, Jonida Vokshi, Gulielm Radoja

Logline: Pregnant woman and her sister try to find a man to pretend to be the mom-to-be’s husband before visiting their traditional father.

Prodco: Bunker Film Plus

Algeria Héliopolis

Director: Djaâfar Gacem

Key cast: Souhila Mallem, Mehdi

Ramdani, Cesar Duminil

Logline: Algerians fight for independence punctuated by the 1945 massacre in the ancient city of Héliopolis.

Prodco: Centre Algérien de Développement du Cinéma

Argentina The Sleepwalkers

Director: Paula Hernández

Key Cast: Érica Rivas, Ornella D’elía, Marilu Marini, Daniel Hendler

Logline: A family drama encompasses the sexual awakening...

The Bangladesh Oscar Committee has selected acclaimed anthology film “Sincerely Yours, Dhaka” as the country’s entry to the 2021 Oscars’ international feature film category.

“Dhaka” is a collection of 11 shorts set in Bangladesh’s capital city by 11 emerging filmmakers: Nuhash Humayun, Syed Ahmed Shawki, Rahat Rahman Joy, M.D. Robiul Alam, Golam Kibria Farooki, Mir Mukarram Hossain, Tanvir Ahsan, Mahmudul Islam, Abdullah Al Noor, Krishnendu Chattopadhyay and Syed Saleh Ahmed Sobhan.

The film is produced by Faridur Reza and Ebne Hasan Khan for leading Bangladeshi studio Impress Telefilm. The project was the brainchild of “Dhaka” creative producer Abu Shahed Emon, a directing masters graduate of the Korea National University of Arts. His debut feature, 2014’s “Jalal’s Story,” was Bangladesh’s entry in the Oscar foreign-language category and was nominated for the New Currents Award at Busan.

“Sincerely Yours, Dhaka” had its world premiere at Busan and has since played at more than 20 festivals worldwide.

Film Republic, a London-based specialist sales agent, has acquired the international rights to feature debutant Rezwan Shahriar Sumit’s “The Salt in Our Waters.”

The film had its world premiere at the British Film Institute London Film Festival earlier this month, followed by its Asian premiere at the Busan Film Festival.

“The Salt in Our Waters” tells the story of an artist who leaves the bustling Bangladesh capital Dhaka to relocate to a coastal village on the Bangladeshi delta for inspiration. Welcomed by the local fishermen, the artist’s modern ideas and sculptures enchant the local chairman and the children, but not all welcome his modern approach with such open arms. Against the backdrops of environment change and the rising tide, some villagers accuse him and his works of having provoked disastrous weather patterns.

The cast includes Fazlur Rahman Babu, Shatabdi Wadud, Titas Zia, Tasnova Tamanna and Ashok Bepari. The...

The conflicting interaction between a city artist and the villagers of a fishing isle is at the core of young Bangladeshi director and writer Rezwan Shahriar Sumit’s first feature “The Salt in Our Waters”. Even before its world premiere, scheduled at the BFI London Film Festival, the film has been already awarded France’s Cnc Aide aux cinémas du monde, Tfl Audience Design Fund, Bangladesh’s national film grant, and the Spike Lee Fellowship. The bar is high!

“The Salt in Our Waters” is screening at the BFI London Film Festival

City-man and sculptor Rudro (Titas Zia), decides to leave behind the chaos of Dhaka and spend some time on a small mangrove fishing island in the Bay of Bengal, to work but also to retrace the steps of his late father, a coastguard who once had fallen in love with that part of the country. Once on the island,...

Bangladesh is looking to discover the next generation of filmmaking talent with the country’s first anthology film, “Sincerely Yours, Dhaka,” that has its world premiere at Busan’s A Window on Asian Cinema strand. The film is executive produced by Faridur Reza and Ebne Hasan Khan for leading Bangladeshi studio Impress Telefilm.

“Dhaka” is a collection of 11 shorts set in Bangladesh’s capital city by 11 emerging filmmakers: Nuhash Humayun, Syed Ahmed Shawki, Rahat Rahman Joy, M.D. Robiul Alam, Golam Kibria Farooki, Mir Mukarram Hossain, Tanvir Ahsan, Mahmudul Islam, Abdullah Al Noor, Krishnendu Chattopadhyay and Syed Saleh Ahmed Sobhan.

The project is the brainchild of “Dhaka” creative producer Abu Shahed Emon, a directing masters graduate of the Korea National University of Arts. His debut feature, 2014’s “Jalal’s Story,” was Bangladesh’s entry in the Oscar foreign-language category and was nominated for the New Currents Award at Busan.

“The...