The notification calling for films for the National Film Awards 2023 was published on June 26 last year.
Due to the change in government, a new jury board was formed to review the films. In all, more than a year has passed since the announcement, the list of awardees has not been published yet. Many applicants are becoming increasingly frustrated as the list of names of the awardees has not been published yet.
Why is there a delay?
Several members of the jury board spoke to the Times of Bangladesh regarding this. They all said that the jury board submitted their final mark sheet information on March 3. After that, they have not had any updates.
Jury board member composer Maqsud Jamil Mintu said, “We have seen all the films and submitted the marks. It has been three months. Now, it is not our responsibility to announce who will receive the final award. There is a separate committee of the ministry. They are supposed to hold a meeting and publish it. We do not know why they have not done it yet.”
It is heard that the government wants to give the awards for 2023 and 2024 together, a citable reason for the delay. Because if the two-year award is to be given together, films will have to be invited for the 2024 award.
No notification has been given yet. After the announcement, a new jury will have to be formed and they will have to look at the films and submit their marks. Which is a matter of four to six months.
Maqsood Jamil said that Mintu or any other jury does not know anything about this. Senior Assistant Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Sharmin Akhtar, has also said that she is unaware of this matter alongside not having any knowledge on when the list of names of the awardees for 2023 would be published.
The National Film Awards are given in 27 categories. Notable among them are Lifetime Achievement Award, Best Film, Best Actor, etc. This time, more than 50 films were submitted for all the categories. Out of these, ‘Saatao’ and ‘Adim’ are leading the race for best film as per the jury board numbers.