TV Times

TV Times

‘Ira Madiyama’ wins fifth award
Prasanna Vithanage’s Ira Madiyama (August Sun) has shared the Grand Jury Prize with a Russian entry at the recently held Makati Cinemanila International Film Festival 2004.

Being entered in the Competition section, the film shared the award with Russian direction “Road to Koktebel” directed by Boris Khlebnikov and Alexei Popogrebsky. “Vibrator” (Japan) of Ryuichi Hiroki won the main award, Grand Prize Lino Brocka Award, at the 6th Cinemanila Festival held from July 1st to 6th.

The three entries beat 15 other entries from countries around the world including Finland, Malaysia, United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium, Afghanistan, Singapore Denmark, Sweden/Denmark and Philippines itself.

The Cinemanla Festival organised by the Independent Cinema Association of the Philippines and MovPix International is an annual event that has been running for the last five years. This year the festival had four main sections: Philippine Cinema, Asian Cinema, World Cinema and Digital Cinema and six to ten films of each category were chosen to participate in the competition and vie for the awards; Grand Prize, Jury Prize, Best Actor, Best Actress, Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) Prize; Best Short Film and Best Documentary.

This is the fifth time that Prasanna’s film was awarded with international recognition after participating in twenty-five film Festivals. Earlier ‘Ira Madiya’ was awarded with the International Critic Prize at the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) and Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) at Singapore International Film Festival, won the Silver Award for the Best film (Lady Harimaguada Plata) and Best Actress Award for Nimmi Harasgama) at the 5th International Film Festival of Las Palmas –2004 in Spain and a Jury Special Mention at Grand Prix “Le Regard D’or” at 18th Fribourg International Film Festival-2004.

Set in a mid-1990 scenario ‘Ira Madiyama’ centres on three main narratives, which evolve simultaneously. The individuals in this story are all caught up in the quest of looking for what they have lost. The cast in the films are Peter D’ Almeida, Nimmi Harasgama, Namal Jayasinghe, Mohamed Rahfiulla, Nadi Kammalaweera, A. A. Mansoor, Maheshwari Ratnam, Gayani Gishanthika, H. V. Thaheera and Rajeena Begum.

Soma Edirisinghe produced Ira Madiyama for EAP Films. The film is to be released in the EAP circuit by the end of this year.

Top