Sarasaviya Awards
Trophy of the award
Awarded for	Excellence in cinematic achievements
Country	Sri Lanka
Presented by	Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited
First awarded	May 9, 1964
Last awarded	3 August 2018 (2018-08-03)

Sarasaviya Awards (Sinhala:සරසවිය සම්මාන) is an award bestowed to distinguished individuals involved with the Sinhala cinema, each year by the Sarasaviya weekly newspaper in collaboration with the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited (Lake House), Sri Lanka in recognition of the contributions made by them to the Sri Lankan film industry. The Sarasaviya ceremony is one of the oldest film events in Sri Lanka. The awards were first introduced in 1964.^[1][2] The Sarasaviya Awards have been often referred to as the Sinhala Cinema industry's equivalent to The Oscars.^[3]

History

The Sarasaviya film awards ceremony began in 1964 at a time when the local cinema was trying to shed its South Indian orientation and establish an indigenous identity. There was no need to go to India to make films any more and the era of Indian artistes too had ended.

The first Sarasaviya film festival was held on May 9, 1964 at the Asoka Cinema Hall, Colombo, 17 years after the first Sinhala film screened. By then a series of good Sinhala films like Podi Putha, Rekhawa, Sandeshaya, Ranmuthuduwa, Kurulubedda, Sikurutharuwa and Gamperaliya had appeared on screen. Yet the mainstream consisted of simulations of Indian productions.

The year 1960 is seen as the beginning of the golden era of Sinhala cinema. The first Sarasaviya Awards Festival had as entries not only the films screened in 1963 but also the films screened from 1960 to 1963. The best film, best director, best script-writer, best actor and best actress were honoured that day. Gamperaliya was regarded as the best film and it was awarded to its producer Anton Wickremasinghe. Sir Lester James Peiris and Regi Siriwardena won the awards for best director and best script-writer, respectively and that too was for Gamperaliya. D.R. Nanayakkara was awarded the best actor title for his performance in Sikuru Tharuwa, another popular film in the 1964 film festival. The best actress award was received by Punya Heendeniya for her performance in Gamperaliya.

Awards at present

In 2004, there were 33 awards in total, including the 12 prominent awards. However, this varies from year to year. Following is a brief list of the Award winners from each category for each year since 1964.

Winners of past Sarasaviya Awards

References