rating l/fe’ -- the composite competition providing a platform for upcoming filmmakers, photographers and lyricists -- is all set for this year's finale. The nationwide talent hunt was initiated last year.

Arranged jointly by The Daily Star and Standard Chartered Bank. "Celebrating Life" is a welcome step forward to encourage undiscovered talents in the country. It is noteworthy that this is the first contest of its kind on such a large scale in the country.

The finale of this year's competition will be held towards the end of this month, informed the organisers.

This year, the theme of the talent hunt is Celebrating Womanhood' as the organisers are strong adherents of

women's empowerment in the country. This year's finale wiH unveil twenty-six awards in three categories --film, lyrics and photography. Of these, four awards

will go to the film section, ten to lyrics and twelve to the photography section.

On behalf of the organisers of the competition, Rafi Hossain asserted that the

response -- in all three categories -- is as good as last year, thotigh the submission in the film sectibn is a little disappointing. "We expected more entries in the

film category," he said.

However, Hossain also affirms that they will put in greater effort to encourage more people to make films. As per the commitment, the organisers will arrange a film workshop after the competition, to be conducted by renowned filmmakers.

This year 100 entries were received in the film segment, over 2,500 in the photography segment and over 3,000 in both Bangla and English lyrics. A jury board, containing renowned personalities from the respective fields, is evaluating the entries.

Like last year, renowned artistes including Runa Laila, * Shahnaz Rahmatullah, Kumar Biswajit, Samina ; Chowdhury, Fahmida Nabi : and Subir Nandi are to feature in an album containing this year's award winning lyrics.

The organisers also plan to publish a book of photog-’■aphy,.„WVt,^niPMl 9>vard-■ Winning images.

Last year, after the competition, thd organisers arranged cultural programmes in several districts to popularise the event and connect with more people. Hossain pointed out that this year they will arrange more elaborate programmes across the country.

Last year, Shibu Kumar Shil won the Best Documentary Award. Selim Newaj Bhuiyan won the Best Photograph Award, while Chandra Chowdhury and Tanveer Ahmed Tomal won the Best Award for Bangla and English lyrics respectively.

Channel i, abc radio, weekly 2000, Zaheen Music and Dots and Marks are the media partners of this year's event.