Entries for Raigam Tele’es 2021 now open

 The 17th encounter of Raigam Tele’es will be held, combining the postponed event for 2020 with the event due for 2021. 

Organisers said for the 2020 tele-creations telecast during the calendar year 2020, applications are closed, and the judging process is now completed.

For the 2021 tele-creations telecast during the calendar year 2021, applications are now being accepted.

At each Raigam Tele’es award ceremony tele-dramas and other television programs telecast during relevant calendar year are considered. Accordingly, the television programs that were telecast in the year 2019 were considered at the last event conducted in September 2020.

Unfortunately, the award ceremony for the programs telecast in 2020, which was due to be held in early 2021 was not possible due to the pandemic situation. At the same time, it is almost time up for the subsequent event (2021) as well. Despite several issues, including logistics and extended durations, the organisers have decided to conduct a combined event for 2020 and 2021 as both events are due now.

A wide range of cinema and television festivals are conducted at both domestic and international levels in order to uplift the quality and creativity of relevant products through appreciation of good work done by the artists, producers and institutions, annually. Further, these festivals result in setting benchmarks for the industry. 

Sri Lankans experienced the first-ever indigenous film festival, Sarasaviya Cinema Award Ceremony on 9 May 1964 and since then a few more award ceremonies have been introduced by the Government as well as non-Governmental bodies, of which some are not visible regularly while few others are not in existence today. 

In 2005, Raigam Tele’es was launched by the famous local business conglomerate in the FMCG industry, the Raigam Group of Companies, to fill the gap that had been created in conducting a regular award ceremony for the television industry due to the unstable situation in the country. 

Today, Raigam Tele’es has become the most prominent television festival in Sri Lanka with the record of conducting such an event consecutively for sixteen years. The highest quality standards maintained in the judging process, innovative presentation and broad coverage through almost all the television channels and social media are the success factors of the festival. 

It has pioneered in introducing many features to the industry, including announcement of nominations at a grand function prior to the main event. While the award winners are benefited with cash awards, all the nominees are benefited with a valuable insurance cover and testimonials.

An independent non-commercial body under the name ‘RaigamTele’es Secretariate’ has been established for conducting the event under the guidance of an eminent panel of artists and academics. 

The strong partnership of Sampath Bank is the key pillar of sustainability of the festival.