Kamar Ahmad Simon

Kamar Ahmad Simon is a new generation Bangladeshi filmmaker, writer, and cinematographer with many international awards and acclaims.

Kamar Ahmad Simon
NationalityBangladeshi
OccupationFilm director

Early life

Kamar was born and brought up in the old lanes of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. He studied architecture at university. After graduation, he opted for a career as a creative director in advertising before becoming a full-time filmmaker.[1]

Filmography

Are You Listening! (Shunte Ki Pao!) 2012

Kamar's first feature creative non fiction film is Are You Listening!.

Are You Listening! was the ‘Curtain-Opener’ of 55th DOK Leipzig in Germany (2012), the oldest documentary festivals of the world.[2] Later the film won the ‘Grand Prix’ in the 35th Cinéma du Réel held in Paris (2013) [3] and Golden Conch Award on 9 February 2014 at the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF).[4] Kamar also won the award for “Best Cinematography” for the same film.[5] It was awarded twice by Jan Vrijman Fund from IDFA and also by Visions Sud est from Switzerland. It was awarded as one of the best Pitches at the Asian Forum for Documentaries and it is invited to Berlinale Talent Campus Studio Lab for editing. The film won 2015 Bangladesh National Film Award for Best Documentary Film.[6][7] The film theme is selected among the top ten lists out 125 in the La Cinema Du Monde (World's Cinema) in Cannes Film Festival and it is the first of this sort of achievement for Bangladesh.[8][9][10][11]

Testimony of a Thread (Ekti Sutar Jobanbondi) 2015

Testimony of a Thread was his first television documentary which was co-produced by four leading Asian Broadcasters NHK (Japan), KBS (Korea), Mediacorp (Singapore) and PTS (Taiwan).[12] This film won the Asian Pitch for its screenplay.[13]

Iron Stream (Shikolbaha) Work in Progress

Iron Stream is Kamar's first fiction project. It was the only non-European selection out of 24 projects which were invited to European Producers Workshop.[14] Iron Stream received script development grant from Goteborg International Film Festival, Sweden.[15] It was also invited to European Post-Production Connection (EP2C) and Produire au Sud a co-production platform of Festival of 3 Continents in Nantes, France.[16][17] This script also won World Cinema Fund (WCF) from Berlin International Film Festival and National Film Grant of Bangladesh.[18][19]

day after... (Onnodin) Work in Progress

'day after ... ' is the 2nd Part of 'Water Trilogy' by Kamar after Are You Listening!. The project was invited to La Atelier in Cannes 2017 as one of the 15 promising scripts.[20] For this work-in-progress Kamar was awarded ‘Best Project Award’ & ‘ARTE International Prix’ in Locarno Film Festival (Open Doors) 2016. Earlier the project also received grant awards from Sundance Film Festival and International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).[21]

Awards and accolades

  • Best Project Award & ARTE International Prix, Locarno Film Festival (Open Doors)
  • Grant Award, Sundance Film Festival
  • Grant Award: Script & Production, IDFA ( Jan Vrijman Fund & IDFA Bertha Fund)
  • World Cinema Fund (WCF), Berlin Film Festival
  • Opening Night Film, 55th Dok-Leipzig, Germany 2012[22]
  • Jury Award, Film South Asia 2013, Nepal[23]
  • Grand Prix for Best Feature-Length Documentary, 35th Cinéma du Réel 2013, France
  • Audience Choice Award, Seattle South Asian Film Festival (SSAFF) 2014, Seattle, USA [24]
  • Best Cinematography, Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) 2014, India
  • Golden Conch for Best Feature-Length Documentary, Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) 2014, India[25]
  • Best Feature for Best Feature-Length Non-fiction, Bangladesh National Film Award 2015[26]

References

  1. "Kamar Ahmad Simon". Berlinale Talents. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  2. "Are You Listening! (Shunte Ki Pao!)". Filmfinder.dok-leipzig.de. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  3. "Cinéma du réel #12 — Cinéma du Réel". Cinemadureel.org. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  4. "Kamar Ahmad Simon won Golden Conch Award of MIFF 2014". Jagranjosh.com. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  5. "Kamar brings home Golden Conch". The Daily Star. 11 February 2014.
  6. "'Mrittika Maya' reigns supreme in National Film Award". Prothom Alo. 10 March 2015. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  7. "Mrittika Maya". The Daily Star. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  8. With International Award Winning Director, Kamar Ahmed Simon. YouTube. 9 October 2013. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  9. ""Shunte Ki Pao!" wins jury award in Film Southasia '13". The Daily Star. 9 October 2013. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  10. Kabir, Punny (26 December 2013). "Kamar wins Asian Grand Pitch". Dhaka Tribune. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  11. Shazu, Shah Alam (3 January 2014). "Racy pace". The Daily Star. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  12. "Kamar Simon's "Testimony of a Thread" on April 22 - Art & Culture - observerbd.com". Observerbd.com. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  13. "the Asian Pitch - This is your chance to break into the International Market!". Nhk.or.jp. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  14. "SILENCE OF THE SEASHELL" (PDF). 3continents.com\accessdate=18 July 2018.
  15. "Bangladeshi script awarded in Göteborg". The Daily Star. 8 September 2012. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  16. "Post Production Training : Keep yourself up to date". Ep2c.com. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  17. "Festival des 3 Continents - Silence of the Seashell (en production)". 3continents.com. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  18. "Kamar Ahmad Simon wins grant for "Shonkhodhoni"". The Daily Star. 25 July 2016. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  19. "Kamar wins World Cinema Fund, again". The Daily Star. 21 July 2017. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  20. Festival de Cannes (Officiel) (22 May 2017). "LES REALISATEURS DE L'ATELIER - Photocall - VF -Cannes 2017". YouTube. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  21. "DAY AFTER TOMORROW". cinando.com. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  22. "Dok Leipzig opens tonight". DOK Leipzig web archive. Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 26 December 2013.
  23. "The QFX Jury Award, Film Southasia".
  24. "Chicago South Asian Film Festival". csaffestival.tumblr.com. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  25. "MIFF'2014 Award Winning Films". Miff.in. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  26. "PM distributes National Film Award". The Daily Star. 5 April 2015. Retrieved 18 July 2018.

Further reading

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