Sri Lankan Director Sanjeewa Pushpakumara Double Bill

Sanjeewa Pushpakumara is a Sri Lankan filmmaker. In 2008, he obtained his advanced degree (Master of Fine Arts) in filmmaking 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. In 2012, he participated in Berlin Talent Campus.

Sanjeewa’s first feature film, Flying Fish (Igillena Maluwo) world premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam and was nominated for the Tiger Award. Flying Fish was also 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 world premiered at the Busan International Film Festival (2016) under its New Currents Competition. Besides Busan, Burning Birds won a prize at Tokyo’s FilmEx Festival and travelled to various film festivals.

This November, be sure to catch these two critically acclaimed film, Flying Fish and Burning Birds, from Director Pushpakumara.

Fresh in this month is Puspakumara‘s directorial debut ‘Flying Fish’, an anthology movie following three vastly different characters bound together by the harsh realities of the Sri Lankan Civil War. Making a splash at the 2012 Hong Kong International Film Festival by clinching a nomination for the FIPRESCI Prize, ‘Flying Fish’ is equal parts sensational and brutally honest- a proud addition to our curation of cinematic gems.

Puspakumara’s second feature film ‘Burning Birds’ is a gut-wrenching tale of one mother’s desperate struggle to keep her family of eight children afloat in the wake of her husband’s murder. Nominated for the New Currents Award at the 2016 Busan International Film Festival, ‘Burning Birds’ is a gritty, tragic, and undeniably spectacular follow up to ‘Flying Fish’ that is a definite must watch this month.

Catch them all on CinemaWorld Channel [schedule].