Kamar Ahmad Simon
Alma materBangladesh University of Engineering and Technology
Occupation(s)Film director, cinematographer, writer, architect
Years active2012–present
Awards

Kamar Ahmad Simon is a Bangladeshi filmmaker. He was featured as red carpet director in Piazza Grande at Locarno and has won various awards including the prestigious Harrell Award at CIFF (Camden), Grand Prix at Cinéma du Réel (Paris), Open Doors Award and Arte International Prix at Locarno, Golden Conch at MIFF (Mumbai), grants from Sundance, IDFA-Bertha and WCF/ Berlinale. He has been a jury member of the Sydney International Film Festival for the Australian segment, La Bibliothèque publique d’information (BPI) France, Johns Hopkins University USA has acquired his film and Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) have exhibited his work.

Early life and education

Kamar was born and brought up in an orthodox Muslim family of the old part of Dhaka, Bangladesh.[1]

He passed one of the most competitive exams at Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology and enrolled in an undergraduate program studying architecture. He became interested in international cinema after attending local film festivals, and he started exploring the ethos of artistic filmmaking.[1]

Career

After graduating as an architect, Kamar has started his career as a creative director. He built a basic studio setup of camera, sound, gears and an alternative projection setup on his own. To advance his learning with no film school in the country, Kamar enrolled into programs like Berlinale Talents, European AudioVisual Entrepreneurs (EAVE) workshops (Croatia, Luxembourg and Amsterdam), IDFAcademy Summer School (Amsterdam, Netherlands), Produire au Sud (Nantes, France) and Asian Film Academy (Busan, South Korea).[2]

Kamar's works explore existential themes, and his style challenges the border between fiction and non-fiction.[1]

He came to fame with his debut Are You Listening!, for which he won the Grand Prix at Cinéma du Réel at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and Golden Conch at the Mumbai International Film Festival. Are You Listening! was also the opening film of Locarno Open Doors Screening and Dok-Leipzig in Germany.

Kamar was featured as the red carpet Director at Locarno Piazza Grande after winning the Open Doors Awards in Locarno Open Doors Hub for the 2nd part of the water trilogy ‘Day after…’, which was in the main international competition of IDFA 2021. It was also invited to La Atelier Cinéfondation of Cannes. Kamar received World Cinema Fund at the Berlinale for his feature Iron Stream.

The Bibliothèque nationale de France and Johns Hopkins University have acquired his film and Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) have exhibited his work.

Filmography

Shunte Ki Pao! (Are You Listening!)

Kamar's first feature creative non-fiction film is Are You Listening!, released in 1012.

Are You Listening! was the ‘Curtain-Opener’ of 55th DOK Leipzig in Germany (2012), the oldest documentary festivals of the world.[3] Later, the film won the ‘Grand Prix’ in the 35th Cinéma du Réel held in Paris (2013)[4] and Golden Conch Award on 9 February 2014 at the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF).[5] Kamar also won the award for "Best Cinematography" for the same film.[6] It was also the opening film of Open Doors Screening at Locarno Film Festival.[7] First of Kamar's Water Trilogy, the film 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.[8][9] 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.[10][11][12][13]

Ekti Sutar Jobanbondi (Testimony of a Thread) 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).[14] This film won the Asian Pitch for its screenplay.[15] According to the director, Testimony of a Thread is a monologue collage inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s Roshomon, in search of a face behind the numbers of the deadliest structural failure accident in modern human history.

Neel Mukut 2021

Co-produced by four leading Asian Broadcasters NHK (Japan), KBS (Korea), Mediacorp (Singapore) and PTS (Taiwan), Neel Mukut was set for theatrical release on 27 March 2020 but then halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[16] Although, initially nothing had been shared about the film's story or lineup but the poster of the film drew much attention.[17] The film also received an uncut censor certificate from Bangladesh Censor Board.[18] Finally the film was released[19] in Bangladeshi OTT platform Chorki on 8 August 2021. Being a docu-fiction, a genre not much explored in Bangladesh, the film received a positive response from both the critics and audience.

Anyadin... (Day After...) 2021

Day After... is the second part of Water Trilogy by Kamar after Are You Listening!. The film had its world premiere on 20 November 2021[20][21] at the Pathé Tuschinski in Amsterdam, Netherlands after being nominated at the International Competition of IDFA[22] that year. Winner of the prestigious Harrell Awards[23] for the best at the Camden International Film Festival (CIFF), the film was also invited at other prominent festivals like the First Look Film Festival by Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI), Vancouver International Film Festival[24] and Zurich Film Festival.[25] The project was invited to La Atelier in Cannes 2017 as one of the 15 promising scripts.[26] For this work-in-progress Kamar was awarded ‘Open Doors Awards’ & ‘ARTE International Prix’ in Locarno Film Festival (Open Doors) 2016. Co-produced by Barents Film and DW Film, earlier the project also received grant awards from Sundance Film Festival and International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).[27]

Shikolbaha (Iron Stream)

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.[28] Iron Stream received script development grant from Goteborg International Film Festival, Sweden.[29] 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.[30][31] This script also won World Cinema Fund (WCF) from Berlin International Film Festival twice and National Film Grant of Bangladesh.[32][33] The film is co-produced by Germany's Weydemann Bros. The project was initially titled as Shongkhodhoni (Silence of the Seashell).[28]

Awards and accolades

References

  1. 1 2 3 "About – Kamar Ahmad Simon". Retrieved 9 October 2022.
  2. ↑ "Kamar Ahmad Simon". Berlinale Talents. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  3. ↑ "Are You Listening! (Shunte Ki Pao!)". Filmfinder.dok-leipzig.de. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  4. ↑ "Cinéma du réel #12 — Cinéma du Réel". Cinemadureel.org. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  5. ↑ "Kamar Ahmad Simon won Golden Conch Award of MIFF 2014". Jagranjosh.com. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  6. ↑ "Kamar brings home Golden Conch". The Daily Star. 11 February 2014.
  7. ↑ "Shunte ki pao!". www.locarnofestival.ch. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  8. ↑ "'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.
  9. ↑ "Mrittika Maya". The Daily Star. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  10. ↑ With International Award Winning Director, Kamar Ahmed Simon. YouTube. 9 October 2013. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  11. ↑ ""Shunte Ki Pao!" wins jury award in Film Southasia '13". The Daily Star. 9 October 2013. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  12. ↑ Kabir, Punny (26 December 2013). "Kamar wins Asian Grand Pitch". Dhaka Tribune. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  13. ↑ Shazu, Shah Alam (3 January 2014). "Racy pace". The Daily Star. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  14. ↑ "Kamar Simon's "Testimony of a Thread" on April 22". The Daily Observer. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  15. ↑ "the Asian Pitch - This is your chance to break into the International Market!". NHK. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  16. ↑ "Coronavirus Delays 'Neel Mukut'". Dhaka Tribune. 12 March 2020. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  17. ↑ "Poster of 'Neel Mukut' unveiled". The Daily Star. 15 February 2020. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  18. ↑ "Kamar Ahmad Simon's 'Neel Mukut' gets uncut censor certificate". The Daily Observer. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  19. ↑ "'Neel Mukut' to premiere on Chorki on August 8". The Daily Star. 3 August 2021. Retrieved 16 October 2021.
  20. ↑ Young2021-11-20T22:20:00+00:00, Neil. "'Day After….': IDFA Review". Screen. Retrieved 19 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  21. ↑ Balaga, Marta (22 November 2021). "'Day After…' Helmer Kamar Ahmad Simon Shows That at the End of the Day 'We Are All in the Same Boat'". Variety. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  22. ↑ Barraclough, Leo (1 November 2021). "Louis Hothothot's 'Four Journeys' to Open IDFA; International Competition Lineup Revealed". Variety. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  23. ↑ "Kamar Ahmad Simon's 'Anyadin…' wins Best Picture Award at Camden". The Daily Star. 20 September 2022. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
  24. ↑ "Day After..." Vancouver International Film Festival. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
  25. ↑ Day After… / Anyadin… - Zurich Film Festival (in German), retrieved 9 October 2022
  26. ↑ Festival de Cannes (Officiel) (22 May 2017). "Les Realisateurs de l'Atelier - Photocall - VF -Cannes 2017". YouTube. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  27. ↑ "Day After Tomorrow". cinando.com. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  28. 1 2 "SILENCE OF THE SEASHELL" (PDF). 3continents.com\access-date=18 July 2018.
  29. ↑ "Bangladeshi script awarded in Göteborg". The Daily Star. 8 September 2012. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  30. ↑ "Post Production Training : Keep yourself up to date". Ep2c.com. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  31. ↑ "Festival des 3 Continents - Silence of the Seashell (en production)". 3continents.com. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  32. ↑ "Kamar Ahmad Simon wins grant for "Shonkhodhoni"". The Daily Star. 25 July 2016. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  33. ↑ "Kamar wins World Cinema Fund, again". The Daily Star. 21 July 2017. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  34. ↑ "Dok Leipzig opens tonight". DOK Leipzig web archive. Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 26 December 2013.
  35. ↑ "The QFX Jury Award, Film Southasia".
  36. ↑ ""Shunte Ki Pao!" declared Best Film at Cinema du Reel". The Daily Star. 1 April 2013. Retrieved 6 September 2020.
  37. ↑ "Chicago South Asian Film Festival". csaffestival.tumblr.com. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  38. 1 2 "MIFF'2014 Award Winning Films". Miff.in. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  39. ↑ "PM distributes National Film Award". The Daily Star. 5 April 2015. Retrieved 18 July 2018.

Further reading

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