By Rachel Rawlins BBC Arts correspondent

Apart from beautiful starlets posing on the beach as the cameras click, or perhaps the victorious progress of world-famous directors along the red carpet in front of cheering crowds of fans, this years Cannes has another appealing side.

'Cinema of the whole world' new initiative launched in Cannes

The festival is promoting young talent and the diversity of the global film industry. This year sees the launch of a new initiative - "Tous les Cinémas du Monde" or Cinema of the whole world.

“The aim is to illustrate what we call, in French we say "la diversite culturelle" or cultural diversity,” says project director Serge Sobcynski.

“What's inside is in fact the principle of inviting countries. We give one day to each country and four or five screenings. In four or five screenings they demonstrate, show what I should call a panorama of their most recent cinematographic activity and production.”

'Controversial film'

Tous les Cinémas du Monde has dedicated Thursday 19 May for Sri Lanka.

“Sri Lanka is one of the most surprising countries. We don't know very well Sri Lankan cinema and now, today, we are presenting four films which are very different one from the other but very strong,” Sobcynski added.

Prasanna Vithanage’s “August Sun” (Ira Mediyama), Dharmasena Pathiraja’s “Ponmanie”, Sudath Devapriya's "Against the tide" ( Udugan Yamaya) and Asoka Handagama’s "Flying with One Wing" (Thani Thatuwen Piyambanna) were screened on Sri Lanka day.

Cannes is often seen as an antidote to Hollywood and the US industry

Flying with One Wing is based upon a woman posing as a man who tries to hide her identity but was discovered at the end.

“The issue is, I mean nominally, the gender discrimination. I don't like to limit it to that thing,” comments Handagama.

“When it is from the Asian region, this is a film about the condition of the women in the Asian context. But when it comes to the European audience, it is a film about gay and lesbian thing or transvestite thing or whatever. It's kind of different things.”

The controversial film was initially banned by the censors in Sri Lanka.

“When the film was released in the country there was a good response from the audience. But in the meantime there were protests overnight outside the theatres. So a lot of things were there. It was a good experience, an exciting experience as a film-maker.”