This was for the first time that a Bangladeshi feature film won an award in the IFFI where the film had also made its debut. Earlier, a short film titled "Agami" and directed by Morshedul Islam from Bangladesh won an IFFI award.

"Nirontor," a non-judgemental film about a lower middle-class family in Dhaka struggling to meet its ends, stars Ilyas Kanchan, Shabnoor and Jayanta Chattopadhyay.

The film was screened on November 24 and 29 in the Asian-African-Latin American competition section, but Sayeed could not be present to introduce his film to the audience as he reached there a little late.

"I'm very happy to get the award

which will encourage independent filmmakers' struggle to make meaningful movies in Bangladesh," the 48-year-old director said immediately after the five-member jury headed by noted Australian director Rolf de Heer announced the awards at the closing ceremony of IFFI in Panaji, Goa last evening.

Sayeed said the award, a cash reward of Rs 5 lakh (about seven and half lakh in taka), will help partly finance his next movie to be shot in Bogra early next year. Inspired by a short story by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevosky, his next film is about the fissures in relations between two families in a village due to political, social and professional reasons, he added.

"Nirontor" is the third feature film by Sayeed whose previous two works "Kirtankhola" and "Sankhanad" had won several national awards in Bangladesh.

Sayeed's movies are well known in the festival circuit in India as they have been shown in festivals in Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram and Delhi. The director will be back in Dhaka tomorrow after a day's halt in Mumbai today.