Cinema Award:

The BBC Four World Cinema Award is an annual prize given out to celebrate the best in world cinema. A shortlist of six films is made by the UK's leading critics, film-school heads and festival directors from the foreign language films released in that year in the UK. The winner is selected by a panel of judges whose decision making process is screened as part of the award ceremony, screened live on BBC Four.
In the first nine years most films were made in South India and followed the conventions of Indian cinema. Rekava, made in 1956 by pioneer director Lester James Peries, was the first Sinhala film to be shot completely out of studio and contain a truly Sinhalese storyline. Though acclaimed by local and international critics, the film failed to find an audience in the country and was a box office failure. Films continued to follow formulaic storylines borrowed from India up through the early 60s despite such efforts as Sandesaya and Kurulu Bedda.
In 1964, Lester James Peries again contributed to the development of Sri Lankan cinema with Gamperaliya which was the first Sinhala film to feature no songs and like Rekava shot completely outside the studio. It garnered massive praise for portraying Sinhala culture in a realistic manner and was hailed by critics and audiences alike. Following this breakthrough,
several artistic Sinhala films were made in the late-60s including Sath Samudura by professor Siri Gunasinghe, Sikuru Tharuwa by P. K. D. Seneviratne, Chandiya by Titus Thotawatte, Hanthane Kathawa by Sugathapala Senerath Yapa, Nim Wallala by Ranjith Lal, Ves Gatho by Vasantha Obeysekera and Saama and Dahasak Sithuvili by G. D. L. Perera. Peries perhaps capped off the 1960s with his masterwork Nidhanaya.