Feature

A gathering of glittering stars

GATHERING all the stars of the local silver screen under one roof, the 30th Sarasaviya Film Festival which is the much awaited milestone in the local cinema calender will be held today at the BMICH at 6.30 p.m.

This momentous festival is sponsored this year by the Hatton National Bank (HNB) and the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation (SLIC).

This year's Sarasaviya film festival has been specially titled as "Divine honours for the propagation of Cinema" by the organisers.

A unique feature of this year's festival is that the cash prizes presented to the award winners have been doubled from this year.

Twenty two films screened last year has been selected for this year's competition in the festival under several main categories such as Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor/ Actress, Best Supporting Actor/ Actress,Best producer etc.

Altogether 33 awards will be presented this year for the artistes who excelled on last year's silver screen.

Amongst new addition to the festival is an award presented to a pioneer in the local Tamil films.

Veteran lyricist Bandula Nanayakkarawasam will handle the script of the stage direction of the main Sarasaviya Film Festival along with the TVT of Ravindra Guruge.

The first Sarasaviya film festival was held in 1964 at Asoka film hall in Colombo and the film " Gamperaliya" was selected as the Best Film for that year.

Speaking on the Sarasaviya Awards, ANCL Chairman Janadasa Peiris said: "Lake-House as one of the country's leading print media institution has undertook to holding several key events in the country such as Vesak festival and the Poson festival in Mihintale for many years.

The Sarasaviya Film Festival is one of the foremost happenings in our annual event diary. This event is not only limited to the group of Lake House. We considered it as a national art event".

Secretary to the Ministry of Information W.P. Ganegala said that the Ministry of Information will provide it's fullest corporation to make this national event a success. In fact, a mini film festival was held in Kandy.

During the film week in Colombo, seven veteran artists who are now ailing received cash awards. They are Cyril A. Seelawimala, J.H. Jayawardana, George Leslie Ranasinghe, Nawanandana Wijesinghe, Alexander Fernando, Latitia Peiris and Aloy Gunawardana.

They were awarded Rs. 50,000 each by the two sponsors Hatton National Bank and the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation Limited.

Sarasaviya is one of the oldest film publications in the region and has a wide readership in Sri Lanka. The Sarasaviya Film Festival has become an eagerly awaited event in the film calendar.

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