Jaffna Int’l Film Fest opens Lifetime Achievement Award to K. S. Sivakumaran

The sixth edition of the Jaffna International Cinema Festival opened recently with the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award to senior journalist and film critic K. S. Sivakumaran. The 6th edition of the festival will continue during the next 3 months upto March 25, 2021, in keeping with the current health and safety guidelines.

The festival spearheaded by Agenda 14 led by globally renowned passionate film enthusiast Anomaa Rajakaruna, will present the festival as separate segments during the next 3 months. The Festival will include physical screenings in Jaffna, Masterclasses, online streaming, travelling film festival to Colombo and other places.

The jury process is in progress to select the best debut film and International and National short films. In the past five years, the Jaffna International Film Festival has recognized and felicitated great personalities who had made invaluable and long lasting contributions to Sri Lankan cinema, by bestowing on them lifetime achievement awards.

In the sixth edition of the Jaffna International Film Festival it felicitated K. S. Sivakumaran - a pioneering figure in the world of arts and letters, a person who helped to introduce the Tamil speaking literati to the Sinhala speaking world, wrote on the cinema as a journalist and a critic and enriched the understanding of it in the Tamil world and helped build bridges. Mr. Sivakumaran born on October 1, 1936, hails from Puleeyantheevu, Batticaloa and had his early schooling there, and on moving to Colombo studied at Colombo Hindu College, and St. Joseph’s College, Colombo. He graduated with a BA in English, Tamil and Western Classical Culture from the University of Peradeniya and possesses an MA from the University of Madras, along with numerous Diplomas in the arts and in film studies. Sivakumaran is a veteran journalist, broadcaster, translator and film critic.

The festival spearheaded by Agenda 14 led by globally renowned passionate film enthusiast Anomaa Rajakaruna, will present the festival as separate segments.