Int’l Buddhist Film Festival next year:

Forty one countries to participate

Priyanka Kurugala

An international film festival will be held in 2011 to mark the 2600 Sri Sambuddhathwa Jayanthi Anniversary, National Film Corporation Chairman Kumar Abesinghe said.

He was addressing a press conference at Sri Lanka Film Corporation, New Cinema Hall on Tuesday (7).

This International Film Festival will be organized by Sri Lanka National Film Corporation, Light of Asia Foundation and Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH). All programs will be implemented under the direction of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The main aim of this International Buddhist Film Festival is to shoot and screen the epigraphy film of Siddhartha Gauthama. Siddhartha the Buddha is the name of this film.

A number of local and foreign actors and actresses will be featured in this film.

Program organizers have planned to screen around 200 local and foreign films for this event. Forty one countries with significant Buddhist populations would participate in the International Film Festival.

Local and foreign short films, statues and paintings of Buddhist art, photographs and other Buddhist cultural creations will also be exhibited on this occasion.

Two Buddhist film festivals were held here in 2009 and 2010.