Sri
Lankan cinema in past years has featured
subjects such as family relationships, love
stories and the years of conflict between the
military and Tamil Tiger rebels. Many films
are in the Sinhalese language and the Sri
Lankan cinematic style is similar to
bollywood, kollywood of Indian cinema.
The
first film to be produced and shown in Sri
Lanka was Kadawunu Poronduwa (The Broken
Promise) which was released in 1947. The first
colour film of Sri Lanka was Ranmuthu Duwa.
Afterwards
there were many Sinhalese movies produced in
Sri Lanka and some of them, such as Nidhanaya,
received several international film awards.
The most influential filmmaker in the history
of Sri Lankan cinema is Lester James Peiris
who has directed many movies of excellent
quality which led to global acclaim. His
latest film, Wekande Walauwa
("Mansion by the Lake") became the
first movie to be submitted from Sri Lanka for
the Best Foreign Language film award at the
Academy Awards.
In
2005 the director Vimukthi Jayasundara became
the first Sri Lankan to win the prestigious
Camera d’Or award for Best First Film, or
any award for that matter, at the Cannes Film
Festival for his Sinhalese language film Sulanga
Enu Pinisa (The Forsaken Land).
Controversial filmmaker Asoka Handagama's
films are considered by many in the Sri Lankan
film world to be the best films of honest
response to the ethnic conflict raged in the
country for many years.
Prasanna
Vithanage is one of Sri Lanka's most notable filmmakers.
His films have won many awards, both local and
international. Recent releases like 'Sooriya Arana', 'Samanala
thatu', and 'Hiripoda wessa' have attracted Sri Lankans to
cinemas. Sri Lankan films are usually in the Sinhalese
language. Tamil language movies are also filmed in Sri
Lanka but they are part of Kollywood which is Indian Tamil
cinema. It is also known as Sri Lankan Tamil cinema in Sri
Lanka. However some Kollywood films are based in Sri Lanka
as well.
Music
Main
article: Music of Sri Lanka
The
earliest music came from the theatre at a time when the
traditional open-air drama (referred to in Sinhala as Kolam,
and Nadagam). In 1903 the first music album, Nurthi,
was released through Radio Ceylon. Also Vernon Corea
introduced Sri Lankan music in the English Service of
Radio Ceylon.
In the
early 1960s, Indian music in films greatly influenced Sri
Lankan music and later Sri Lankan stars like Sunil Shantha
found greater popularity among Indian people. By 1963,
Radio Ceylon had more Indian listeners than Sri Lankan
ones. The notable songwriters Mahagama Sekara and Ananda
Samarakoon made a Sri Lankan music revolution. At the peak
of this revolution, musicians such as W. D. Amaradeva,
H.R. Jothipala, Milton Mallawarachchi, M.S. Fernando,
Annesley Malewana and Clarence Wijewardene did great work.
A very
popular type of music is the so-called Baila, a kind of
dance music that originated from Portuguese music
introduced to the island in colonial times
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