The 2012 Kandy International Film Festival will not be held as scheduled from June 20-24th. The organizers regret this decision but felt that holding the festival without proper financial support would not be fair to the exceptional slate of international and domestic talent set to attend. We will be back soon. Please be in touch to get involved.
The Kandy International Film Festival will be taking submissions for this year’s festival until April 15th. Please fill out the online form to begin the process.
The Kandy International Film Festival completed its first workshop series in Batticaloa with funding provided by the Singapore International Foundation. The workshop, conducted over a 9 day period in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka introduced 16 participants to the basics of filmmaking techniques and theories. Director Sherman Ong from Singapore presided over the workshop, working with students on conceptual and technical methods of film production. Over the course of the workshop, students developed their own short films and produced three works collaboratively.
The workshop participants were mainly from Eastern University’s Fine Arts Department. In addition, 3 youth from a local theatre company “Third Eye” joined in the workshop held at St. John’s church in Batticaloa. Participants met for a minimum of 4 hours each day from September 10th through the 18th. Sherman shared several of his short films with the participants as well as commentary from film critics on creating artistically successful video pieces. Among Sherman’s films were several films related to dance. These were particularly well by the participants, many of whom came to the workshop with a strong background in dance and performance art. For most of the students, this was their first exposure to producing film or video. While most of them had a strong background in acting, Sherman was able to explain tangibly the difference between acting for a lens and acting on the stage. This was a key feature of the workshop, as well as the importance of minimalist dialogue and script continuity.
The workshop was organized by the Kandy International Film Festival, which held its inaugeral festival in June of this year. Sherman Ong’s “Memories of a Burning Tree” was screened at the festival and he was invited to lead a workshop on film production and theory to be held in Sri Lanka’s east. The festival is extremely grateful to the Singapore International Foundation for funding the event. Sri Lankan filmmaker Thisara Imbulana also attended the workshop and gave insight into filmmaking in Sri Lanka.. Festival directors Samuel Holt and Suba Sivakumaran were on site to assist in the workshop and provide administrative support to Sherman. Kasun Hettiarachchi and Asanka Mapitigamage from Kandy also assisted with the workshop. Participants were provided with food, drink and transportation during the ten day period. The Kandy International Film Festival, which is an annual event, to be held in June, aims to conduct similar workshops in various parts of the country. For more information about the festival, visit the website at www,kandyinternationalfilmfestival.com.
After lunch on the final day in Batticaloa.
The Best Documentary Film Audience award was given to director Ian Cheney for his film City Dark, which captivated audiences at the Wala on Friday June 24th, 2011. Festival Director Samuel Holt presented the award to Ian Cheney in Brooklyn.
Every year, KIFF will present an award for outstanding achievement in film to one of the festival participants. This year, we honored Sri Lankan actress Malani Fonseka for her exceptional contribution to Sri Lankan cinema. The award was presented by festival director Samuel Holt on June 24th at the KIFF Gala dinner at Hotel Thilanka in Kandy, Sri Lanka.
We’ve prepared a short slideshow on some of the notable events at KIFF so far:
New screening time for Ahasin Wetei (Between Two Worlds) by Vimukthi Jayasundara announced. Ahasin Wetei will be screened at 8pm at the New Venue of the Open Air Theatre at Peradeniya (Wala) on (same day) Saturday June 26th, 2011. We hope to see you there!!
In other news, Malani Fonseka will be at our Gala Dinner at Thilanka Hotel at 8pm on Friday June 25th. A limited number of tickets are also available for purchase, at our KIFF location at Kandy City Center!
The Sri Lankan premiere of Vimukthi Jayasundara’s Ahasin Wetei, Prasanna Vithanage’s Aagaya Pookal (Tamil version of Akasa Kusum), How I Wonder What You Are (by Chinthana Dharmadasa and Udhaya Dharmawardhana) and Nino Live (by Thisara Imbulana) , the world premiere from Thisara Imbulana) will be showing at the Kandy International Film Festival. See our schedule for more details! Synopses and director bios available here.
Ahasin Wetei
Nino Live
Aagaya Pookal
How I Wonder What You Are
Feature Films in June 2011 include
Fleurs Du Mal (Flowers of Evil by Director David Dusa)
I Am by Director Onir
Meherjaan by Director Rubaiyyat Hossain
Memories of A Burning Tree by Director Sherman Ong
Mundane History by Director Anocha Suwichakornpong
Virgin Goat by Director Murali Nair
Documentary Films include
The City Dark by Ian Cheney
Koran by Heart by Greg Barker
Marathon Boy by Gemma Atwal
Fambul Tok by Sara Terry
Tropical Amsterdam by Alexa Oona Schulz
Gandhi’s Children by Vishnu Vasu
