The 7th Safal Fest 24 organised by Australia South Asia Forum was a grand success .It started of with the Performing Arts competition on Sunday 18th of August at the West Ryde Hall Station Street West Ryde followed by the Fine Arts Competition on Sunday the 8th of September at the Historic Brush farm House Eastwood, Literature and Poetry Slam competition on Sunday the 15th of September at the West Ryde Hall Station Street West Ryde, Screening of Short Film
competition finalists on Wednesday 18th of September at the Macquarie Room NSW Parliament House, Safal Fest Grand Awards Night on the 21st September at the Pioneer Theatre Castle Hill.
The highlight of the Festival was the first ever screening of the finalists of the Safal fest 24 short film competition at Macquarie Room NSW Parliament House, It was graced by the Hon Mark Buttigieg MLC, Parliamentary Secretary for Multiculturalism and the Hon. Janakiraman Indian Consul General of India (Sydney) In the Indian Panaroma segment a Biological Documentary of renowned danseuse Tara Rajkumar OAM Tara the Singing Anklet and Nithya Gopu Soloman representing the Film Producer ‘We Belong Australia’ was screened (Courtesy of the Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations Sydney)
The Spectacular Grand awards night was inaugurated by The Hon. Mark Buttigieg Parliamentary Secretary for Multiculturalism and also presents was Sreeni Pillamarri the newly elected
Councilor from Parramatta. The audiences were entertained by cultural performances by the winners of Safal fest 24 Singing and Dance competition. We also had international singers from Sri lanka Bonny Fernando , Vijay Cooray and Sharmila, and Nivod Menusha who Entertained the Audiences with great singing.
The following people were bestowed with the Prestigious Safal Fest 24 Awards: Lifetime Achievement Award:
Tara Rajkumar OAM (Performing Arts) India Rajanie Fonseka (Performing Arts) Sri Lanka Significant Contribution Awards:
Arka Das (Film ,TV and Video) Bangladesh Dilka Samanmali (Film, TV and Video) Sri Lanka Vipul Vyas ( Performing Arts) India
Shankari Chandran (Literature) Sri Lanka Raju Manandhar (Literature) Nepal
Special Awards:
Kavitha Jeyekumar (Sri Lanka) Sakina Akter (Bangladesh)
The Safal Fest 24 Short Film Contest Winner and Runner Up were announced by Pankaj Upadhyay (one of the member of the Judging Panel) as below:
Winner : Under the Red Light (Afghanistan) Director Hasiba Ebrahimi
The Vultures (Srilanka Sinhalese) Director Isuru Gunathilika
The Grand Award Night ended with a Fantastic Nepali Band (Pranesh and his team)
Success of any Festival depends on Excellent Team Work and would like to acknowledge the Organising Committee: Ash Gholkar President/Founder ASAF Director Safal Fest, Kedarnath Pagaddinnimath Secretary/Co -Founder ASAF Safal Fest Chairperson, Saliya Tennakoon Safal Fest Director, Kithsri Karunaratne Curator of Films, Sakina Akter Curator of Performing Arts, Kavita JeyaKumar, Curator Fine Arts, Hasitha Adhikariachchi Curator of Literature,and our Members Shahid Malik , Reza Ryan, Sanzida Murtaza, Sasani Jayasinghe, Pjay Shrestha, Sriyani Tennekoon, Binod Paudel, Sangeeta Shendkar Treasurer (ASAF Inc.)
The organising committee congratulates all the winners of Awards Night, and thank all the Performers, our International guests, sponsors, audiences , our main Funding Contributors City of Ryde and Multicultural NSW and Srilankan Airlines for donating 2 return tickets to Sri Lanka for the Gala Awards Raffle ,Grand Udawalawe Safari Resort, Green Gold, Fincorp Property Group, HEF, Innov8ive Real Estate, CMRC, Shremaya Foundation, Sydney Traffic Engineers, Lanka Events. Yimiri Yoga, Event 360
Thanks also to Hasitha Rathnayake our official Videographer and Shantana Deka Dutta our official Photographer for Safal Fest 24 and Mr Harmohan Walia ji for his coverage of the Gala Awards Night and of course our Caterer Indika
Last but not the Least Big thanks to Our Excellent MC ‘s Wayne Aguiar and Vihanga
