“At the end of the day, filmmaking is an expensive business. So, how the investment in this sector will return--this process has to be decided in advance,” renowned Bangladeshi filmmaker and producer Abu Shahed Emon made the comment at an interactive conference titled ‘West Meets East’ at Dhaka Club in the capital on Tuesday.

With the participation of local and international filmmakers, the conference was held as part of the ongoing ‘18th Dhaka International Film Festival 2020’. The daylong event was attended by internationally acclaimed filmmakers Rubaiyet Hossain, Prosun Azad, Meenakshi Shedde, South Asia delegate of Berlin Film Festival and Suli, programmer of Busan Film Festival, among others.

At the beginning of the conference, Meenakshi Shedde discussed the techniques of the selection of films for the festivals. Then, Abu Shahed Emon and other directors discussed the filmmaking, investment and its challenges.

According to the discussants, international film festivals may vary according to regions. For example, some aspects are significant for the Europe film festival, which may not significant for Asian festivals and the focus point of American film festivals are different.

So, before making a film, the filmmakers or affiliates have to decide where they will screen the film or in which festival it will be participating. They also have to be careful about selecting festivals. For an example, Meenakshi said, “Only the best films of the Busan Film Festival in Asia are the focus of the Cannes Film Festival”.

Rainbow Film Society, one of the most active film entities in the film society movement of Bangladesh, has organised the18th edition of ‘Dhaka International Film Festival’ with the motto ‘Better Film, Better Audience and Better Society’.

During the 9-day festival, 220 films from around 74 countries are being screened under different categories.

Commenced on January 11, the festival will end on January 19.