The Daily Star-Standard Chartered Celebrating Life Contest
Contract to hunt talents renewed
Editor & Publisher of The Daily Star Mahfuz Anam and Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered Bank Jim McCabe exchange documents after signing the renewal of a contract between Standard Chartered Bank and The Daily Star at Sonargaon Hotel in the city yesterday. Head of Corporate Affairs of Standard Chartered Bank Bitopi Das Chowdhury, extreme left, and Festival Coordinator of Celebrating Life Contest Rafi Hossain, extreme right, were present on the occasion.Photo: STAR
More talents working for disseminating the natural beauties and heritages of Bangladesh through photography, films and lyrics will get recognition under the "Celebrating Life," a national contest in the areas. The scope for the talents widened yesterday thanks to a renewal of a contract between The Daily Star and Standard Chartered Bank, Bangladesh. Editor and Publisher of The Daily Star Mahfuz Anam and Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered Bank Jim McCabe yesterday signed the deal at Sonargaon Hotel in the city on behalf of their respective organisations. Under the deal, the organisers will call for entries from professionals and non-professionals for the contest to hunt talents in the areas of film, photography and lyrics for a period of more three years, starting from this year (2011). Since 2008, The Daily Star and Standard Chartered Bank have been organising the contest "Celebrating Life," opening up the scope for anyone in the country to take part. Over the past three years, the organisers of the contest received a total of 45,000 entries in three categories--film, photography and lyrics--that showcase various aspects of life in Bangladesh. Speaking on the occasion, Editor and Publisher of The Daily Star Mahfuz Anam said, ''We are proud to become a part of the joint initiative of showcasing Bangladesh. Through this contest Celebrating Life, we want to portray the cultural heritages and natural beauties as well as diversity of life of Bangladesh before the people.'' Jim McCabe, chief executive officer of Standard Chartered Bank said the contest has been an eye opener for a lot of people. ''Through “Celebrating Life” we will be able to see, hear, feel and appreciate Bangladesh in a new light,'' he said. “It is not uncommon for people to receive accolades for excelling in banking, print/electronic media, research and development. We promote the belief that it is equally important to encourage people to pursue careers in the arts, thus encouraging them to become the 'culture shapers' of the future for Bangladesh." To patronise the quality of productions, the organisers have increased the prize money in all three areas significantly for 2011. Total prize money has increased to Tk 15.65 lakh compared to Tk 4.48 lakh earlier. Under the initiative, Celebrating Life 2011, which is based on a theme "Celebrating the Gifts of Nature and Rivers of Bangladesh," ten winners will get prize money. Over a dozen more will receive "Honourable Mention" awards, along with crests and certificates. Winners will be announced at the Award Giving Gala Ceremony by the end of September, 2011. Weeklong festivals will be organised in twelve districts throughout 2011, showcasing the winning entries from the previous years' and this year's contests, said the organisers. FilmUnder the film category, four prizes will be given in two sections--normal entrants and debut entrants. Entrants from each section can submit works that are either a documentary of fictional piece. For debut entries, the duration of the film must not be shorter than three minutes and not be longer than 12 minutes. For another section, the duration of the film must be at least 20 minutes and not longer than 45 minutes. The prize money for each of the normal fictional and documentary piece will be Tk 2 lakh and prize money for each of the debut fictional and documentary film will be Tk 50,000. The winning films will be aired in Channel i and showed in Celebrating Life programmes and district tours and gala events. To encourage film making, organisers will also arrange film workshops. Photography
The theme of photography competition for 2011 will be the same like the film category--"Celebrating the Gifts of Nature and Rivers of Bangladesh.” Entries will be needed to submit their works in CDs/DVDs and photographs should have a resolution of 2000 pixels. Twelve prizes will be given under photography category. For first, second and third prizes, cash money with certificates and crests will be given to winners while winners from fourth to twelfth places will receive "Honourable Mentions" with certificates and crests. Under the photography category, Tk 1 lakh, Tk 50,000 and Tk 25,000 will be given against first, second and third winners. Winners' works will be published in a book along with other selected entries in the competition. The twelve winning entries will also showcased in a calendar published by the Standard Chartered Bank every year. Lyrics
Under lyrics, the organisers will give cash money with certificates and crests to first, second and third winners. In addition, Honourable Mentions with certificates and crests will be given to from fourth to tenth winners. Entries can be submitted in both Bangla and English. Work of winners will be composed into songs and launched in the market in Audio Compact Disk (CD) formats. The songs will later be sung in concerts for the gala events and during twelve district level tours of the competition. Three lifetime achievement awards for film, photography and lyric will be given to those people who are veterans in their fields. The renewal of the deal comes at a time when a growing number of youths are showing interests to photography and film making thanks to easy access to digital devices such as portable camera. Head of Corporate Affairs of Standard Chartered Bank Bitopi Das Chowdhury and Festival Coordinator of Celebrating Life Contest Rafi Hossain were also present on the occasion.
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