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The BENGAL FILM JOURNALISTS' ASSOCIATION is the oldest
Association of Film critics in the country, founded in 1937, by
the inspiration and determination of the handful of pioneers
amongst the then thin section of scribes that were drawn to film
journalism with a lofty mission to serve the developing film
journalism and film industry.
Members of the Association are drawn from
the film section of the entire Press of West Bengal composed of
dailies, periodicals and film journals in various languages
published from Kolkata. Film correspondents and critics working
for any newspaper or periodicals published outside Bengal having
their base in Kolkata were also eligible to be members of this
Association.
It is not enough to say that this is the
oldest Association of its kind in the country, but also the
first to institute awards in an endeavor to promote and
encourage the production of better films just a year after its
inception when the 1st Motion Picture Congress was held in
Faridpur (now in Bangladesh) in 1938. Representatives of the
association played a vital role in its deliberations. Similarly
our Association was fully represented at the Silver Jubilee of
the Indian Cinema.
In 1952 when India staged the First
International Film Festival, an exhibition on big scale was held
in Kolkata Maidan. Exhibition of many antiques on film camera,
projector and other accessories, showing the growth of films and
development of Indian Film Industry. BFJA. had its own stall
where it displayed its various magazines, periodicals and
journals published from Kolkata, as also the copies of old
magazines and journals on films tracing the history of growth of
film journalism in this country.
Thereafter, when IFFI came on the
regular circuit of International Film Festivals, BFJA has
tendered active assistance and co-operation, whenever called
upon to serve on any committee in the interest of making the
festival’s success. For the last four years the association have
been bringing out special bulletin to commemorate the IFFI &
also hosting reception to the visiting delegates.
Cinema to the members of BFJA apart from
its basic function of providing clean entertainment, is a strong
social, cultural and artistic force to help the progressive
development of the nation.
ALSO SEE
HISTORY
OF BENGALI CINEMA
PREVIOUS WINNERS
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