Young moviemakers honoured
Amalshan Gunarathne
Young talent was showcased in abundance at Alliance France De Kotte
when Bonsoir Television Magazine organized a short film festival to
celebrate its 25th anniversary. The entries for the film festival were
selected from young moviemakers all over the country including North and
Central Provinces. An award ceremony was held later in the evening at
the National Film Corporation Theatre to acknowledge and spur young
moviemakers who sent their creations to the festival.
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The award winners |
Prominent figures in the movie industry such as Boodi Keerthisena,
Prasanna Vithanage, Sumithra Peiries and Rajarathnam were present at the
event to support and encourage the budding artistes. The panel of judges
comprised seasoned movie producers such as Sumithra Peries and Ashoka
Handagama. Speaking at the event senior filmmaker Sumithra Peries
expressed that even they were struck by the diversity of the themes
articulated by the young filmmakers. She added that the local cinema
will be enriched by the power of their commitment.
Out of the lot 15 movies made it to the final round and seven awards
were given. The grand award for the best short film went to Sujeewa
Gunarathne for his short movie Limits. The movie focused its attention
on two completely different personalities who find it hard to co-exist
within a certain system due to their ideological differences and the
disparities of their attitude towards life. Speaking to Artscope the
grand award winner Sujeewa Guanrathne said: "I have been working as an
art director with popular movie producers for years and have always felt
the need to create my own work, so I decided to make this short movie as
a start."
Special Jury Award went to Lahiru Samarasinghe for his White and
Black where he made an allegorical reference to the modern day politics.
The movie also portrayed the conflict between good and evil using the
image of a white rabbit which was a very novel and innovative movie
concept. Mujeenath, one of the Tamil participants in the event, was
given a special Jury Mention for his movie The Noon. It was among one of
the most poignant and touching movies at display, where he showed the
difficulties and hardships a common homeless person go through while
trying to find his afternoon lunch. Chaturika Nimalachandra and Nayani
Sandya Chandrasinghe won merit awards for their movies Dolls and The
Snail respectively.
Apart from nominees and winners the event featured were a few other
movies which raised eyebrows of the audience. Janaka Jananda Bandara's
Manasa was an enthralling one, where he seems to discuss the sexual
alienation and loneliness of man drawing parallels from the genesis
story in Bible. Then there was also Iresh Lokubandara's Laugh where he
brings out the gravity of war using animated action figures which was a
very novel and innovative concept for a short movie. Most movies
revolved around severe, thought-provoking themes which addressed social
issues such as poverty, class conflict, political tension war and
violence.
It was a refreshing event filled with youthful exuberance where
budding youth of Sri Lanka were given the opportunity to freely express
themselves. Anjula Rasanga, a young budding participant in the
competition, said that he never had the opportunity to study the art of
moviemaking, but always had the passion and hunger to create his own
work.
The event was indeed a success and with such budding youth being lent
a hand to showcase their true potential, we can rest assured that the
future of the Sri Lankan cinema is in good hands. |
