The 36th SIGNIS (OCIC/UNDA) Salutation for creative cinema and tele dramas for 2011 will be held on September 1 at the BMICH at 6 pm. The organizers said all Sinhala films screened in 2011 and all serialized Sinhala tele dramas not exceeding 52 episodes telecast last year are eligible for the awards.

SIGNIS (OCIC/UNDA) National Director Rev. Fr. Benedict Joseph said awards would be considered for single episode tele dramas, cine documentaries and tele documentaries this year too.

“This year too, we will follow the same pattern of presenting awards but we want to make this event a meaningful one. His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith will be the Chief Guest. We are making all arrangements to trim the day’s programme in such a way that we will go on a strict time frame,” Fr. Benedict Joseph told Impulse.

“It should be noted that, conducting a festival of this type is quite an arduous task. Today specially, finding funds have become difficult but we as an Organization has pursued with a lot of success. We are fortunate to form Juries for different categories. Almost all our Jury members are University Dons. It is indeed a very pleasant exercise to be working with these beautiful people. I must say that all of us have grown up together in our thought patterns and communications. Some people feel that we always have these festivals for the advantage of the Church and award winners are chosen on religious bias. These have no basis. We don’t work on labels. Our main occupation is to foster Culture, and Art. Also to appreciate the good works done by various persons,” he said.

“During the course of 36 years we have evolved in many fields. There are a number of categories that consider presenting awards. It should be noted here OCIC Sri Lanka branch has very correctly recognized all these personalities and special Homage Medal awarded to them. This is really an international homage. Right from the beginning the awards presented to various categories of film making are introduced not as the best Film, Actor and so on, they are named creative contributions. For the best Film Critic, we give Jayawilal Wilegoda Memorial Award and Cyril B. Perera Memorial Award is presented to one who stands out in the field of Cinema Literature,” he said.