‘River Road’ and ‘Motor Bicycle’ ride off with Colombo Festival Prizes

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com): Chinese director Li Ruijun’s ‘River Road’ won best film in the Asian competition at the second International Film Festival of Colombo (6 to 11 November).

The jury also gave a special prize to Behtash Sanaeha’s ‘Risk of Acid Rain’ (Iran). Sammera Rangana Naotunna’s ‘Motor Bicycle’ was adjudged the best Sri Lankan film at the festival. The festival’s competition sections were introduced this year.

The Director’s Guild of Sri Lanka runs the festival. “This film festival is the ideal space to bring other existing works and technologies to Sri Lanka. It also gives international and Sri Lankan filmmakers an opportunity to share their work with the Sri Lankan audience, which in turn helps open the eyes of the Sri Lankan audiences to world cinema,” guild president Vimukthi Jayasundara, winner of the 2005 Cannes Golden Camera for “The Forsaken Land”, told Variety:

The Guild is in the process of formulating a national policy for Sri Lankan Cinema, “which would protect the interests of the producers, while safeguarding the independence of the directors,” said Jayasundara.