Prasanna’s ‘Paradise’ won Las Palmas Audience Jury Award
View(s):By Susitha Fernando
Prasanna Vithanage’s ‘Paradise’-Indo-Sri Lankan production won the Audience Jury Awards at the recently concluded Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival in Spain. THe film competed at the 23rd Film festival which had cinematic creations representing all five continents.
Prasanna’s film revolving around a couple who visits Sri Lanka in a time of economic and political turmoil competed in the festival’s Official Feature Film Section. Held at Las Palmas on the island of Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands in Spain, Prasanna won the 2004 Silver Lady Harimaguada for his earlier film ‘Ira Mediyama’ or “August Sun” at the same festival twenty years later.
Prasanna Vithanage at Las Palmas Film Festival
“Making cinema is something personal for me, making films gives meaning to my life because I can express feelings. Through my films’ characters I also know myself better,” the festival website quoted Prasanna. “Even when subsidies are bad, you have to do it, shooting films, without thinking,” he explained. The film was made during the worst ever financial crisis Sri Lanka was going through in 2022.
Last year “Paradise” won the prestigious Kim Jiseok Award for Best Film at the Busan International Film Festival.
The film was also nominated for four awards at the 17th Asian Film Awards which was presented by the Asian Film Awards Academy in collaboration with Broadway Cinematheque. ‘Paradise’ was‘nominated for the Best Film, Best Director and the Best Screenplay for Prasanna Vithanage and Anushka Senanayake and the Best Editor for A. Sreekar Prasad.
Presented by Mani Ratnam under his Madras Talkies banner and produced by Newton Cinema, ‘Paradise’ stars Roshan Mathew and Darshana Rajendran from Indian cinema joined by Shyam Fernando and Mahendra Perera from Sri Lanka.
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