Sanjeewa Pushpakumara

Sanjeewa Pushpakumara born on 5 May 1977 in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka, completed his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura in 2005. In 2008, he obtained his master's degree in Mass Communications from the University of Kelaniya. Sanjeewa, pursued a diploma in film making at the Sri Lanka National Film Corporation in 2006.[1] In 2007, Pushpakumara received a scholarship from the Korean Culture and Tourism Ministry under its Cultural Partnership Initiative (CPI), to study film-making in the Asian Young Film Forum and also to learn Korean language at Chonbuk National University (Korea).In 2014 he obtained his advanced degree (Master of Fine Arts) in film-making from the Chung-Ang University in South Korea as a Korean Government Scholarship Holder (KGSP).[2] In 2009, Sanjeewa was selected to the Asian Film Academy of Busan International Film Festival.He participated in Berlin Talent Campus in 2012.

Sanjeewa's first feature film, Flying Fish (Igillena Maluwo), received post production support from the Hubert Bals Fund of the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Subsequently, Flying Fish world premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam and was nominated for the Tiger Award. The film reflects the deep social and psychological trauma of the country's twenty-six-year-long civil war.[3] Flying Fish garnered many accolades and the film was invited to more than 30 international film festivals around the world. It was said by Tony Rayns at the 5th Cinema Digital Seoul Film Festival that "Sri Lankan Cinema has found its true modernist" and he has also said that "Flying Fish (Igillena Maluwo) is indecently beautiful".[4]

In 2012, Sanjeewa was invited to Paris by Cinéfondation of Cannes Film Festival to its Résidence programme to develop his second feature film, Burning Birds (Davena Vihagun). The film received production support from Doha Film Institute and post production support from Hubert Bals Fund and Cinema du Monde (CNC).[5]

In 2014,Biennale College – Cinema of Venice Film Festival invited Sanjeewa to Venice to develop his third film project Peacock Lament. in 2019 Peacock Lament also selected to NIPKOW Art Residence in Berlin for advance script development. In 2018 Amma (Mother) film project won Locarno's Open Doors main prize. In 2019 Amma project also invited to LA Residence of Global Media Makers of FiLM iNDEPENT in Los Angeles for advance script development.

Currently Sanjeewa is the Course Director of Sri Lanka Film School which he designed. This is the first ever film school in Sri Lanka.