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The Bangladesh Artist Welfare Organisation (BAWO) is holding an eight-day art exhibition of young artists at Zainul Gallery of the Institute of Fine Art of the Dhaka University. The exhibition, inaugurated by Dr Wakil Ahmed, vice chancellor of the National University on February 3, will remain open from 12:00pm to 6:00pm till February 9.
   The exhibition is the result of an art competition, arranged by the organisation. Over one hundred artists from different art colleges across the country took part in the competition out of which seventy artists were selected for the exhibition.
   The exhibition presents paintings, prints, sculptures and installations in watercolour, oil, ceramic, appliqué and others, depicting mostly beautiful landscapes of the country.
   Images of a calm sea, coconut palms lining the white sand beaches, ships anchored at the port, kash phool swaying gracefully in the wind are beautiful compositions worth remembering. Apart from landscape, there are paintings of the statues of the Barendra Museum, portraits, ruins of architectural sites and the lifestyle of the rural people.
   Rakib Hasan Khan, student of Narayanganj Art College won the Best Award while Saidur Rahman, student of the Institute of Fine Art of the Dhaka University and Bishwajit Goshwami, teacher of the Narayanganj Art College won the Special Awards in the exhibition. Devashish Pal, Uttam Kumar Roy, Mohammad Imran Ali and Abul Hossain Dhali received the honorary mention.
   The organisers hope that this kind of exhibition will encourage young artists, particularly who live out side Dhaka. ‘This organisation is a platform for these artists and we will provide all sorts of cooperation for their welfare,’ said Anwar Hossain, the convenor of the exhibition.
    BAWO, founded in 2000, has plans to arrange two major exhibitions every year, one for contemporary artists and the other for upcoming young artists. An exhibition of the contemporary artists will be held in the city coming May.

Group Theatre Federation could be in a quagmire if the Bengal Foundation withdraws its financial support, theatre experts feel.
   The question arises from the crisis the group has been facing for a long time regarding financial discrepancies and conflict among the office bearers of the federation.
   As a result, Bengal Foundation has threatened to withdraw its financial support from the federation at a meeting held recently between the Federation and Bengal Foundation.
   It is learnt that a cold war between the two leading men of the organisation, Liaquat Ali Lucky, general secretary and Abu Harun Titu, treasurer, has been brewing for some time.
   Harun in his complaint stated ‘Lucky has failed to give the full accounts of all the expenditure for a long time’.
   Lucky stated, ‘we would like to continue the agreement till the last date by any means because the support has been helping a lot to all the groups under the federation’.
   Earlier, the Bengal Foundation had signed a ten year contract with the Federation by which the organisation would provide Tk 15 lakh every year for the betterment of the theatre groups across the country who are members of the Federation.
   In the 90s there was a phase of stagnation in the theatre movement. Aiming to fight the crisis, Bengal and the Federation signed the deal in 2001.
   Genuine theatre activists want Bengal Foundation to continue with its support for the betterment of the theatre in Bangladesh but at the same time they want the office bearers of the Federation to solve their crisis and clean up house before they can expect any kind of support or financial help from any organisation.

Amar Chhabi, a magazine programme on cinema will be aired on Channel-i at 6:30pm.
   The programme upholds the problems and prospects of the cinema in Bangladesh. It also interviews personalities from this arena.
   The presence of the music directors and the singers also adds a new dimension and makes the programme more attractive to the viewers. They recall their fond memories and offer their suggestions in the development of the film industry.
   The event is planned, scripted directed and moderated by Shamim Alam Dipen and Shafiuzzaman Lodi respectively.

South Korean film stars have led a rally opposing plans to cut in half the screen quota system, a government decision they said would trigger a Hollywood movie invasion.
   The rally near the US embassy in central Seoul drew about 1,000 movie producers, actors and directors under a banner
   reading ‘Stop humiliating negotiations that will allow a cultural invasion’.
   Surrounded by riot police, the protestors including Choi Min-Shik, the star of South Korea's 2004 Cannes Grand Prix-winning ‘Old Boy,’ waved placards and chanted slogans opposing a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States.
   South Korea and the United States last week announced the launch of talks aimed at establishing the FTA.
   South Korea's movie industry has condemned the decision as an ‘anti-cultural coup d'etat.’
   Of the top 10 box office hits in South Korea last year seven were home grown and only three from the United States, non of which made the top five.

After a disappointing 2005 for the US box office, this year's Oscar nominations shunned expensive studio product in favour of edgier, low-budget fare.
   Looking at the 2006 nominations, it's clear the American public's mounting indifference to costly blockbusters has been reflected by the Oscar voters.
   Of the five films up for best picture, only one - Steven Spielberg's Munich - has a budget in excess of $14m (£8m).
   But a more telling statistic is the fact that you could make five Brokeback Mountains or 10 Capotes for what it took to bring Spielberg's $75m (£42m) epic to the screen.
   The studios learned to their cost last summer that spending immense sums on the likes of Stealth, The Island and XXX: State of the Union was no guarantee of financial success.
   And regardless who triumphs on Oscar night, the real winners are the discerning filmgoers who have been treated to a surfeit of intelligent, quality cinema that is not afraid to tackle weighty and provocative themes.
   In 1998, the year that global blockbuster Titanic swept the board, the Oscar telecast attracted 55 million viewers - its biggest ever audience.
   Compare that with 1997, when only 40.1 million saw The English Patient crowned best picture.