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Film Island to Market Cinema Tourism at Cannes

Sri Lanka has often been thought of as a popular tourist destination with its golden beaches and ancient sites, but the island’s diverse visual appeal comes with many other possibilities that any filmmaker is bound to discover on arrival.

Cannes
Sri Lanka has often been thought of as a popular tourist destination with its golden beaches and ancient sites, but the island’s diverse visual appeal comes with many other possibilities that any filmmaker is bound to discover on arrival.

Film Island (www.filmisland.net),Sri Lanka’s newest film production and distribution company, will aggressively market the concept of ‘Shoot in Sri Lanka’ at the Cannes Film Festival this month. While many films have been shot in Sri Lanka in the past, Film Island plans to market the country much more strategically and aggressively, making film production a more lucrative FDI earner for the country, similar to the successful strategies New Zealand, Malaysia, Korea and China have adopted in the past.

With the initiative of Sri Lanka Tourist Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Film Island, together with other similar service providers, will make an impactful marketing and promotional drive at the Festival de Cannes, in an effort that will see Sri Lanka represented for the first time ever with a pavilion at Marche du Cannes.

Film Island brings to the industry a team of professionals and is made up of Sri Lanka’s most sought after film director Prasanna Vithanage, and Cannes award-winning filmmaker Vimukthi Jayasundera, in partnership with a group of strategic business partners and a best in class film producer. Film Island intends to attract film producers from around the world and promote the country on the platform of Cinema Tourism, leveraging the untapped potential of Sri Lanka as a sought after film production destination.

Sri Lanka: The Filmmakers Island

Sri Lanka has often been thought of as a popular tourist destination with golden beaches and ancient sites, but the island’s diverse visual appeal comes with many other possibilities that filmmakers are bound to discover on arrival.

The-Filmmakers-Island-inner_modified
Sri Lanka has often been thought of as a popular tourist destination with golden beaches and ancient sites, but the island’s diverse visual appeal comes with many other possibilities that filmmakers are bound to discover on arrival.

Sri Lanka’s most sought after film director Prasanna Vithanage and Cannes award-winning filmmaker Vimukthi Jayasundera invite filmmakers across the planet to visit the island Sri Carol Reed called “the most natural and complete outdoor set” to explore the possibilities of bringing their dream productions to life. The island’s varied landscapes, architecture and culture combine with ease of doing business and economic benefits that you won’t find anywhere else in the region. Sri Lanka is open for business, letting filmmakers explore its boundless possibilities.

Vithanage and Jayasundera are an integral part of Film Island (www.filmisland.net), the newest Film Production and Distribution Company in Sri Lanka. Both filmmakers work in partnership with a team of top film producers and strategic business partners to market Sri Lanka marketed as a unique destination for film shoots, offering the best in-class line production services. While many films have been shot in Sri Lanka in the past, Film Island plans to market the country much more strategically and aggressively, making film production a more lucrative FDI earner for the country. Film Island has the added advantage of being a company of renowned filmmakers who have produced and directed innumerable films in Sri Lanka.

Film Island, with the support of the Sri Lanka Tourist Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be making a journey to the Festival de Cannes this year in an effort that will see Sri Lanka represented for the first time ever with a pavilion at Marche du Cannes. Drop by at the market to meet with Film Island, pick up a guide to filming in Sri Lanka and let Vimukthi Jayasundera and Prasanna Vithanage give you a personal take on why the island has everything you need to make it your next film location. As a part of their programme at Cannes, Film Island will be signing 4 MOU’s with three Indian Film Companies and one French Production Company to promote Sri Lanka as a shooting destination for potential film productions.

Film Island comprises a team of professionals who develop sharp strategies that would help Sri Lanka attract film producers from different regions and promote the country on the platform of Film Tourism, similar to the successful strategies New Zealand, Malaysia, Korea and China have implemented in the past. Let Sri Lanka and its untapped potential become the backdrop to your next production.

The Bridge on the River Kwai

The Bridge on the River Kwai is a British-American 1957 World War II epic film directed by David Lean and starring William Holden, Jack Hawkins, Alec Guinness, and Sessue Hayakawa. Based on the novel Le Pont de la Rivière Kwai (1952) by Pierre Boulle, the film is a work of fiction, but borrows the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942–43 for its historical setting. The movie was filmed in Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka). The bridge in the film was near Kitulgala.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a 1984 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. It is the second installment in the Indiana Jones franchise and a prequel to the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark, featuring Harrison Ford reprising his role as the title character. After arriving in North India, Indiana Jones is asked by desperate villagers to find a mystical stone and rescue their children from a Thuggee cult practicing child slavery, black magic, and ritual human sacrifice in honor of the goddess Kali.

Midnight’s Children

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Monkey Kingdom/ From Disneynature

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Bombay Velvet

Bombay Velvet is a 2015 Indian period crime drama film directed and co-produced by Anurag Kashyap, based on historian Gyan Prakash’s book Mumbai Fables. It stars Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma and Karan Johar in lead roles with Kay Kay Menon, Manish Choudhary, Vivaan Shah and Siddhartha Basu appearing in supporting roles. Bombay Velvet is influenced by Classic Hollywood cinema including Film Noir with its stereotypical caricatures like gangsters, gun molls and femme fatales. The movie draws inspiration from gangster films of the ’30s and the ’40s like The Roaring Twenties and White Heat and neo-noir films like Chinatown and L.A. Confidential.

Water

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