Burma’s Academy Awards ceremony to be held on January 23

Thursday, 13 January 2011 13:30 Tun Tun

New Delhi (Mizzima)––Sixteen films have been nominated in Burma’s Academy Awards ceremony for movies released in 2009, which will be held in Naypyidaw on January 23, according to the Ministry of Information.

The ceremony will be held in an open air theatre in Naypyidaw.

Last year, 12 films, including eight comedies, were nominated.

The films are ‘In-laws and One Thousand Nights’, 'Dream on a Rainy Night’, ‘Don’t Say It’s Love’, ‘Hotshot 2’, ‘It’s Just Kidding Because I Love You’, ‘Dancing’, ‘Chit Kan Pwint and 40 Beautiful Girls’, ‘In-laws Who Are Friends’, ‘Mummy Shane’, ‘Across the Sea’, ‘Schocked Love’, ‘A Wazo Candle’, ‘A Joker with a Serious Face’ ‘Water that Seeps Through Rock’, ‘Shadow of the Past’ and ‘The Sound of a Crane Flappng its Wings’.

Critics say that Nay Toe and Myint Myat are likely to win the best actor award and Eindra Kyaw Zin, Soe Myat Thuza, May Than Nu and Thinza Wint Kyaw have a good chance to win the best actress award.

The ceremony, held each year since 1952, presents awards in eleven categories: best actor, best actress, best film cinematography, best supporting actor, best supporting actress, best music, best sound, best screenplay, best editing, best director and best film.

Last year, only seven awards were presented. Prominent film director Soe Moe said that the number of films produced in 2009 was low and the quality of the films were poor compared to Burmese films in past decades.

‘The award selection committee will have to select the best of low quality films’, he told Mizzima. ‘Most contemporary films do not have lasting value. The classic movies of the past by directors Thukha and Shwedone B. Aung had lasting value. In our day, to win an award, we needed to defeat about 100 competitors. Now even a comedy can win the award because of the small number of movies made each year’.

In the history of Burma’s Academy Awards, Yan Aung has receive six awards, the highest number for an actor, and former actress Myint Myint Khin has won five awards, the highest for an actress.