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. 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). In 2009, Sanjeewa was selected to the Asian Film Academy of Busan International Film Festival.He participated in Berlin Talent Campus in 2012.

Contents

• Decibel Exclusive Sanjeewa Pushpakumara On Burning Birds
• Sanjeewa Pushpakumara speaks about Dawena Vihangun rajagosiipcom
• Feature films
• Short films
• Flying Fish Igillena Maluwo 2011
• Burning Birds Davena Vihagun2017
• References

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. 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".

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).

In 2014,Biennale College – Cinema of Venice Film Festival invited Sanjeewa to Venice to develop his third film project Peacocks’ Lament. Currently Peacocks Lament is on advance script development.