Mizzima News

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) — Burma's Information Ministry has announced that makers of films and documentaries will need to seek prior permission from the Censor Board to be able to contest in international film festivals, sources in the Burmese film industry said.

"The film censorship board has issued a new order. All films and documentary makers must seek permission before contesting at international film festivals," a film director in Rangoon said on condition of anonymity.

According to sources in Rangoon's film industry, the new regulation came into being after director Kyi Phyu Shin won the "2008 Best Short Film Award" of the National Geographic Society with her 15 minute-long documentary film in 2008.

Director, Kyi Phyu Shin, won the award for her documentary film on the life of a Burmese painter called Wathone. The English-subtitled film named 'Scathes of Wathone' included interviews with Wathone.