Farooki and his wife Nusrat Imrose Tisha, also the lead actress in the film - shared the news of this achievement on their Facebook accounts on Tuesday.
"Our film Saturday Afternoon (শনিবার বিকেল) has just won Kumamoto City Award from Fukuoka International Film Festival!! Congratulations to the team", Tisha expressed her joy regarding the achievement.
Thanking the festival authority and the audiences who participated in the voting, director Farooki wrote - "I want to take this opportunity to thank Fukuoka for selecting our film alongside some beautiful films! I also want to thank the Fukuoka audience who have voted for our film. Lastly, thanks to my cast and crew who worked incredibly hard to make this film a reality."
The film is, however, still yet to receive its theatrical release due to the banishment from the Film Censor Board of Bangladesh, which Farooki hopes to see the daylight in the near future - "I only can hope that one day, the Bangladeshi audience will get to to see the film!".
With an ensemble cast of Nusrat Imrose Tisha, Zahid Hasan, Mamunur Rashid, Iresh Zaker, Nader Chowdhury, Gousul Alam Shaon, Indian-Bengali film actor-director Parambrata Chatterjee and Palestinian actor Eyad Hourani - Farooki's 'Saturday Afternoon' is one of the 12 films competed for two audience awards this year including much-hyped films like Jalikattu (India), The story of the three sisters (Joint production from Turkey, Germany, Netherlands, Greece) and Maryam (Kazakhstan), among other competing films.
The film has also received awards in various festivals around the world including the Kommersant Prize at Moscow International Film Festival (2019), Russian Federation of Film Critics Jury Prize at the Moscow International Film Festival (2019), NETPAC Award and High School Award at the Vesoul International Film Festival for Asian Cinema (2020), to name a few.