Sanjeewa Pushpakumara born on 05th 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 filmmaking at the Sri Lanka National Film Corporation in 2006. 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.
Sanjeewa’s first feature film, Flying Fish (Igillena Maluwo) received post-production support from the Hubert Bals Fund of International Film Festival Rotterdam. Subsequently, Flying Fish world premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam and was nominated for the Tiger Award. The film garnered many accolades and the film was invited to more than 30 international film festivals around the world. 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 in advanced script development stage.
