The first-ever Ceylon International Film Festival (CEYIFF) was hosted in Santa Barbara, California in 2022, and an esteemed Awards Ceremony was held in Colombo on February 10, 2023, at the Nawaloka Hospital Auditorium.

The occasion was graced by many influential and inspirational personalities in Sri Lanka’s Cinema industry and the ceremony also saw the participation of US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Julie Chung, who was the Chief Guest at the event.

Accepting an invitation from CEYIFF, CINE STAR FOUNDATION, an organisation dedicated to the local Cinema industry unanimously decided to collaborate to host this historic event in Colombo, with the consent of its Board of Directors and Senior artistes.

Highlights from the ceremony saw notable personalities and films with high production-value from Sri Lanka’s Cinema industry take home awards, including Jayantha  Chandrasiri who won the Best Screenplay award for the film ‘Garasarpa’, The Newspaper which won the Best Film award, Sarath Kotelawala who won Best Director and Best Actor for the ‘Newspaper’, Neranjani Shanmugaraja who won the Best Actress award for the film ‘Tsunami’, Himali Sayurangi who won the Best Supporting Actress award for ‘Tsunami’, Kumara Thirimadura who won the Best Supporting Actor award for The Newspaper, and Tsunami which won the Jury Special Award. Read more.