Two Bangladeshi documentaries reach the final round of the Japan Prize

The winners of the NHK Japan Prize 2026, organised by Japan’s national broadcaster NHK, have been announced. The six contents selected for the Proposal Pitch category were announced at the same time. This year, two Bangladeshi documentaries — “Khude Bari” and “F Minor: Voice of Freedom” — have been nominated for the final round of the Proposal Pitch competition.

“Khude Bari” is being made by Md. Hasanul Haque Jackie under the banner of Adamant Studios. Jharna lives in the char region of Bangladesh. Every year, floods or river erosion wash away the only home of many families in this region into the river.

Architect Marina Tabassum therefore built a small house for Jharna that is easy to build, low-cost, and can easily be moved during natural disasters. The documentary is mainly about the impact of climate change on the lives of people in riverbank and char areas and their struggle to survive.

Director Hasanul Haque Jackie is an independent filmmaker. He earned praise for making “The Story of the Dew”.

“F Minor: Voice of Freedom”, presented under the banner of Channel i, is being made by Mahfuza Akter. The documentary is about F Minor, the only women’s band of Bangladesh’s small ethnic groups.

Alongside their personal lives, the documentary tells the story of the five women members of the F Minor band, their music practice, and their many struggles to establish the band. One of the main aims of making this documentary is to inspire young women artists to establish themselves while practising culture.

Mahfuza Akter previously received a fellowship from the Radio Netherlands Training Centre (RNTC) and served as a judge in a competition for making television programmes for children organised by Germany’s Prix Jeunesse Foundation. She has received the Colors of Asia (2017), One Asia (2018) and PMG Global Grant (2019) awards.

Apart from the two Bangladeshi documentaries, one project each from Indonesia, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia has been selected for the final round of the Proposal Pitch.

This year, the Japan Prize in the Best Work category has been won by Ireland’s “Maddy Plus Triggs Dogs with Jobs”, Taiwan’s “Pai Pai Typhoons Coming”, the joint Greece-France-Denmark production “Bugboy”, and Denmark and the Czech Republic’s “Mr. Nobody Against Putin”.

The Award of Honors went to the United Kingdom’s “Mixmaps the Hurry Up Sandwich”, Australia’s “Replica”, and Japan and Switzerland’s “Colorful: Friends Around the World”. The Special Prize went to Australia’s “Tales from Quarter Suburbia Moonfish”.

The Japan Prize Festival will be held in Tokyo from November 16 to 19. On the final day of the festival, the awards will be presented to the winners at the award ceremony, and the winner of the Proposal Pitch category will also be announced.

NHK has organised this competition since 1965 to encourage the making of educational programmes. This year, a total of 413 contents and proposals were submitted from 59 countries and regions.