Prasanna Vithanage

Born in 1962 Prasanna Vithanage became involved in theatre on leaving school He translated and directed Bernard Shaws Arms and the Man in 1986 and Dario Fos Trumpets and Raspberries in 1991 In 1992 he directed his first film Sisila Gini Gani Ice of Fire It won nine OCIC Sri Lanka Awards including Best Director Best Actor and Best Actress Four years later in 1996 was his second feature Anantha Rathriya Dark Night of the Soul which he wrote and directed It was based on Leo Tolstoys last novel Resurrection It participated in several international film festivals and won a Jurys Special Mention in the First Pusan International Film Festival The film also won all the main awards at the 1996 Sri Lanka Film Critics Forum Awards affiliated with FIPRESCI including awards for Most Outstanding Film Best Director and Best Screenwriter Pawuru Walalu Walls Within his third feature in 1997 won the Best Actress Award for Nita Fernando in her role as Violet at the 1998 Singapore International Film Festival It even won ten out of eleven awards including Best Picture and Best Director at the Sri Lanka Film Critics Forum Awards His fourth feature Purahanda Kaluwara Death on a Full Moon Day of the same year 1997 which he wrote and directed was produced by NHK Japanese Broadcasting Corporation It won the Grand Prix at the Amiens Film Festival Initially banned by the minister in charge of film industry it was released after a yearlong legal battle It was given the release under the supreme court verdict Since it has become one of the most successful film in the more than half a century history of cinema in Sri Lanka Prasanna Vithanage completed Ira Madiyama August Sun his fifth film in 2003 It went on to win many international awards and was featured prominently in the world festival circuit In 2007 Vithanage coproduced the hit film Machan a comedy about a group of working class con artists posing as a handball team directed by The Full Monty producer Uberto Pasolini Machan premiered at the 65th Venice Film Festival in 2008 It was shown widely all over the world winning 11 international awards 2008 also saw the world premiere of Prasanna Vithanages sixth feature film as director Akasa Kusum Flowers of the Sky in Pusan Korea and screened over forty film festivals to wide acclaim winning numerous international awards Oba Nathuwa Oba Ekka With You Without You is his seventh feature His feature debut Documentary Silence in the Courts was the first Documentary film which had a theatrical run in Sri Lanka despite being initially banned from public screening by the Colombo District Court of Sri Lanka His historical drama film Gaadi Children of the Sun 2019 won Cultural Diversity Award at Asia Pacific Screen Awards and ran for 98 days theatrically in Sri Lanka Paradise 2023 is his first Indian language film in Malayalam Hindi Tamil and Sinhala Paradise had its World Premiere at the 28th Busan International Film Festival 2023 and won the Kim Jeseok Award