CFW Film Festival highlights talent through fashion videos shot on smartphones

By Divya Thotawatte

Bringing out talent of emerging young directors through creative videos shot on smartphones, the first-ever Colombo Fashion Week (CFW) Film Festival kicked off this Monday highlighting trends in the industry. 

A good start to the Colombo Fashion Week 2019, the CFW Fashion Film Festival which is held as a separate event for the first time this year, highlighted the work of talented young local film directors to a gathering of fashion lovers at the Galle Face Hotel this Monday. The event was a collaboration between the two creative streams of fashion and film in which creative and unique films created by emerging fashion directors were screened to high-end fashionistas while the ‘Fashion Film Award’ was won by the most outstanding director. 

These films shot on smartphones was the result of filmmakers working together with established fashion designers to represent their ideas and inspiration through innovative one-minute films, which is to bring a new edge to the fashion industry of Sri Lanka. 

CFW Founder and Managing Director Ajai V Singh stated, “Every season we pick one creative field and we pay a lot of attention to that. We’ve been doing fashion films for five seasons and it has achieved such a level that we thought of putting it together as a festival for the first time, where everyone gets to see the films that are being done as a collaboration between the film directors and the designers. What we saw today was of amazing quality of work; it is the first evening of the week of the Colombo Fashion Week 2019 and it was a great start.”

The Fashion Film Festival featured creations of 11 potential fashion film directors namely Zeeshan Akram Jabeer, Jake Rajasignhe, Rajika Thilakarathna, Ayshcharya Pinto, Ezra Roberts, Kasu, Noor Jameel, Gayan De Silva, Ravindu Rumesh and Madu Sean, Ryan Wijayaratne and Jonathan Wijayaratne as ‘You’re my Favorite, and Yashodara Kariyawasam. The Fashion Film Award was won by Ezra Roberts for his inspiring film bringing out the collection of fashion designer Indi Yapa. 

At the side-lines of the festival, the fashion film directors told Daily FT that the featured films were produced based on various inspirations while creative freedom was given by organisers to help bring out the best of filmmakers while encouraging their individuality. The CFW Fashion Film Festival creates a platform for aspiring film directors to showcase their talents, and uphold their work creating collaborations with the fashion industry to promote fashion through films and vice versa. 

Each partner of the Fashion Week is a partner in the vision to create and develop a unique identity for Sri Lanka through the development of the fashion design industry. Title Partner HSBC, Official Hotel Partners Hilton Colombo, Shangri-La Colombo and, Galle Face Hotel Colombo, Official Hair Care Partner Tresemme, Luxury Automobile Partner SML Frontier Automotive – Jaguar Land Rover, Official Eyewear Partner Vision Care, Official Beach Residences Partner Serenia Residences, Official Hair and Make-up Partner Ramani Fernando, Hameedia, Colombo City Walks, Altair Luxury City Living, Mullen Lowe as the Official PR Partner, Emerging Media as the Outdoor Digital Media Partner all share and extend their support towards the vision and aspirations of CFW.

Pix by Upul Abayasekara