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Sanjeewa Pushpakumara

Sanjeewa Pushpakumara (born 5 May 1977) is a Sri Lankan film director, writer, and producer. He grew up in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka and 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. From 2005 to 2006, Pushpakumara pursued a diploma in filmmaking from Sri Lanka's National Film Corporation, where he graduated at the top of his class.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 2009, he again underwent training in the Asian Film Academy as part of the Busan International Film Festival. Pushpakumara is currently completing an advanced degree in film-making at Chung-Ang University in South Korea, under the Korean government scholarship program.Pushpakumara's first feature film, Flying Fish (Igillena Maluwo), received a grant from the Hubert Bals Fund of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (Hubert Bals Fund) to support its post-production costs. The film was subsequently honoured with a nomination for the festival's Tiger Award for new directors. Based on the director's own life experiences, the film reflects the deep social and psychological trauma of the country's twenty-six-year-long civil war.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".2012, Sanjeewa invited to Paris by Résidence programme of Cinéfondation of Cannes Film Festival to develop his second feature project.Biennale College – Cinema of Venice Film Festival of the Biennale di Venezia invited Sanjeewa in 2014 to Venice in order to develop his third film project along with another 11 international film projects to Venice.Currently Peacock Lamenting is on advance script development.