Akash Sunethkumara

Last updated
Akash Sunethkumara
Born
Akash Sunethkumara

(1994-01-19) 19 January 1994 (age 30)
Colombo, Sri Lanka
OccupationFilmmaker
Years active2015-present
Website https://www.highschooljunkies.com

Akash Sunethkumara (Akash Sk) is a Sri Lankan filmmaker, writer and actor. [1]

Contents

Early life

Akash Sunethkumara was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He is an alumnus of St. Nicholas' International College Negombo and Staffordshire University. [2] [3]

Career

High School Junkies

In 2016, Sunethkumara formed a filmmaking collective with a group of friends titled High School Junkies. Together, he created his first publicly released short film EIDETIC which was his Masters thesis project. [4] [5] A low-budgeted short of $300, EIDETIC screened at various film festivals including San Diego Comic-Con's Independent Film Festival. [6] [7] In 2018, he directed a short horror titled The Summoning. [8] [9] Later in 2019, he released a mini-follow up to The Summoning titled The Friend which was also published on Crypt TV. [10] Sunethkumara directed The Knight Out in 2020, a project marketed as an "action musical" which merged the concepts of a music video with martial arts action. [11] [12]

In 2022, Sunethkumara helmed Temporal, a time-travel sci-fi short film about a physicist who races against time to prevent the death of his girlfriend. [13] The film required eight months of work to complete [14] and was experimental to determine how well they could "localize a western sci-fi concept". [15] It was the first project that Sunethkumara and the team had done in collaboration with an external party [16] and also the first project where they collaborated with veteran Sri Lankan actor Lakshman Mendis. [17] Sumner Forbes of Film Threat stated "I was mightily impressed by the production value that Sunethkumara brings to bear in this 30-minute film. The director never loses sight of the film’s strengths, which are the entertaining temporal contradictions that come from leaping back into the recent past, recalling Shane Carruth’s Primer ." [18] Sunethkumara collaborated in 2023 with Sri Lankan actress Yureni Noshika on Teddy, a short film that tackled the "constant realities for so many in relationships and marriages not just in Sri Lanka but across the globe". [19]

Junkyard Theory

Sunethkumara started a podcast during the COVID-19 pandemic called Junkyard Theory where he hosts filmmakers from Hollywood on a livestream. [20] The first education platform of its kind in Sri Lanka, it also offers short modular film courses. [21] [22] Sunethkumara has hosted prominent names in the industry such as Louis Leterrier, Mike Knobloch, John Toll, Paul Hirsch, Donald Sylvester, Richard Norton, Joel Crawford and Simon Barry. [3] [23]

Maktüb Studios

In 2024, Sunethkumara started a new studio with his fiancée, titled Maktüb Studios. The new venture aims to create feature films, moving away from the shorts he created with High School Junkies. [24]

Filmography

YearTitleNotes
2016 EIDETIC First Sri Lankan short film accepted in San Diego Comic-Con's Independent Film Festival
2018 The Summoning
2019The FriendPublished on Crypt TV
2020The Knight Out
2022 Temporal
2023Teddy
2024 Hooves Upcoming and final short film [24]

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References

  1. ↑ "Akash Sk". High School Junkies. Retrieved 2019-07-22.
  2. ↑ "This time it's horror: High School Junkies strike again". The Sunday Times Sri Lanka. Retrieved 2019-07-22.
  3. 1 2 "Meet the movie wizards". Print Edition - The Sunday Times, Sri Lanka. Retrieved 2021-07-17.
  4. ↑ Degree, Raindance Postgraduate (2017-06-01). ""Eiditic" to Screen at San Diego Comic Con". Raindance. Retrieved 2019-07-26.
  5. ↑ "Eidetic". calendar.raindancefestival.org. Archived from the original on 2019-07-12. Retrieved 2019-07-22.
  6. ↑ ""EIDETIC" drags the world attention to Sri Lanka". 2017-09-17. Retrieved 2021-04-11– via PressReader.
  7. ↑ "Sri Lanka's Top Short Films of 2016". YAMU. Retrieved 2019-07-22.
  8. ↑ Charles, Baptiste (2019-07-11). "Raindance MA Alumni Akash Sk shoots horror short "The Summoning"". Raindance. Retrieved 2019-07-22.
  9. ↑ "The Summoning – a testament to clever filmmaking". The Morning - Sri Lanka News. 2018-11-04. Retrieved 2019-07-22.
  10. ↑ "The High School Junkies Have A Short Film Out". Decibel. 2019-05-24. Retrieved 2019-07-22.
  11. ↑ Wijesinghe, Dimithri. "The Knight Out | ද නයිට් අවුට් | an action musical by Akash Sunethkumara". The Morning.
  12. ↑ Clarke, Lucy (2020-09-07). "The Knight Out Short Film Review". UK Film Review. Retrieved 2021-04-11.
  13. ↑ Wijesinghe, Dimithri (2022-03-08). "Temporal: Proof that Sri Lankan cinema can do better". Brunch. Retrieved 2022-03-28.
  14. ↑ "Shooting a paradox on time". Print Edition - The Sunday Times, Sri Lanka. Retrieved 2022-03-28.
  15. ↑ "Temporal Disruption". CeylonToday. Retrieved 2022-04-13.
  16. ↑ "High School Junkies takes on Sci-Fi". The Morning - Sri Lanka News. 2021-10-12. Retrieved 2022-03-28.
  17. ↑ ""WE THINK WE HAVE TIME" A PHYSICIST RISKS EVERYTHING TO RIGHT A WRONG IN SCI-FI SHORT'TEMPORAL' - Life | Daily Mirror". www.dailymirror.lk. Retrieved 2022-03-29.
  18. ↑ "Temporal | Film Threat". 2022-04-19. Retrieved 2022-04-23.
  19. ↑ Kadupitiyage, Shanuka (2023-06-23). "What Teddy saw, we can no longer ignore". Ceylon Today. Retrieved 2024-06-16.
  20. ↑ "How One Sri Lankan Filmmaker Got Tips from Hollywood Masters". No Film School. 2021-04-09. Retrieved 2021-04-11.
  21. ↑ "The Art Of Filmmaking: How Junkyard Theory is uncovering the best tricks and tips of filmmaking - Life Online". www.life.lk. Retrieved 2021-09-17.
  22. ↑ "What is the Junkyard Theory?". The Morning - Sri Lanka News. 2021-01-10. Retrieved 2021-04-11.
  23. ↑ "A year of Junkyard Theory: Akash Sunethkumara". The Morning - Sri Lanka News. 2021-06-06. Retrieved 2021-07-17.
  24. 1 2 Kadupitiyage, Shanuka (2024-07-25). "From shorts to feature films". Ceylon Today. Retrieved 2024-08-01.
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