Samikannu Vincent Film Festival!

Father of south Indian movies Samikannu Vincent (1883 – 1942)

 Samikannu Vincent, a drafts man of southern railways found Cinematograph as a business on 1905. Just 10 years have rolled after cinematography was invented by Lumier Brothers of France. Resigning his job from southern railways, Samikannu Vincent bought a Projector from French touring cinema exhibiter, Dupont.

cinema business of South India began to bloom on that very moment.

Samikannu Vincent became a touring movie exhibitor. At those times, movies were silent, as sound technology was incorporated with the movies only on 1927. Samikannu Vincent had to exhibit the movies and explain the story or content of the movies to the audience. The exhibitor would stand aside the screen and keep explaining loudly what is running on the screen. A tough and techno oriented job, made samikannu Vincent an expert of cinematography.

He was the first exhibitor of movies in south india. He was the first and sole dealer of Pathe Projector Company for south india, which was an international brand, then.

Samikkannu vincennt ran more than 200 touring theatres across south india. Inspired by him, many exhibitors could bloom later. Samikannu Vincent believed that cinema would be a great business and he proved it for first in south india.

That’s why we call samikannu Vincent ‘Father of movies in south india’

Samikannu Vincent built a tent theater, which is semi permanent, in Chennai and named it ‘Edison’, to remember the originator of camera technology.

Samikannu Vincent toured across south Asia with his touring theaters. He carried the art of movie and newly found fountain of business, ‘Movies’, to Pakistan, Bangladesh,  afganistan, mianmar, Singapore and so on.

Having a welfare deal with british PWD officials, Samikannnu Vincent generated electricity power at Coimbatore. He was the first person who lit the electric lamps in Coimbatore. That’s an unforgettable history!

Samikannu Vincent Film awards!

 The best director of South india!

South Indian Film Festival

(Short films, Documentaries, Animation films and Mobile films)

Semmai velietagam, a production house which has produced ‘paalai’ tamil movie. ‘paalai’ got excellent reviews on media and international acclamation as technically well made period movie. ‘paalai’ has been nominated for Norway international Tamil Film Festival 2012.

Now semmai is launching a unique and innovative show of ‘Samikannu Vincent Film Awards Festival 2012. Semmai is the first film production house which conducts a south Indian film festival for short films, documentaries and animation movies.

For the first time Semmai includes Mobile Films into the contest.

Veteran director Balumahendra, actor oorvasi, renowned researcher and  film critique Theodore Baskaran, chief of south Indian film division for U TV Dhananjayan, internationally acclaimed documentary director and research scholar in Ohio University (US) Sornavel, cinematographer Vijay Armstrong and many more honorable personalities decorate the panel of juries.

More than 2,000 entries have been projected to participate in the contest, from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhrapradesh, and Karnataka.

Nearly 800 educational institutions across south india, take part of this historically significant event.

The winner of short film contest would be honored by the glorious title of ‘Samikannu Vincent Award’The best documentary director and cinematographer would receive honorable titles of ‘Mardhamuthu Moopanar Award’ and ‘Natarajapillai Award’ accordingly.

The Semmai Velietagam offers a purchase deal of the sales rights of winning movies. This service is offered to bring forth a bright business opportunity to the short films, documentaries, animation movies and Mobile Films.

An attractive sum of Rs.1, 00,000/ (One Lakh) cash award would be distributed among the winners.

The deadline for the entries would be April 27^th, 2012. The applications is now live in this same page.

The Awarding event would be detailed soon. 

For further enquiries and communications, Inba-co ordinator can be contacted at

+91 94451 20465 and samikannufilmfest@gmail.com

SEMMAI VELIETAGAM,

27/5, 1^st floor, Kamatchi Amman Illam,Bajanai koil street,Pallipatu,
Tharamani,Near Tidel Park,Adayar, Chennai - 600 013