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

Early life

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

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. A low-budgeted short of $300, EIDETIC screened at various film festivals including San Diego Comic-Con's Independent Film Festival. In 2018, he directed a short horror titled ''The Summoning''. Later in 2019, he released a mini-follow up to ''The Summoning'' titled ''The Friend'' which was also published on Crypt TV. 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. 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. The film required eight months of work to complete and was experimental to determine how well they could "localize a western sci-fi concept". It was the first project that Sunethkumara and the team had done in collaboration with an external party and also the first project where they collaborated with veteran Sri Lankan actor Lakshman Mendis. Sumner Forbes of

Film Threat ''Film Threat'' is an American online film review publication, and earlier, a national magazine that focused primarily on independent film, although it also reviewed videos and DVDs of mainstream films, as well as Hollywood movies in theaters. ...

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''." Sunethkumara collaborated in 2023 with Sri Lankan actress

Yureni Noshika Yureni Noshika (born 29 January 1983) is an actress in Sri Lankan cinema and television as well as a singer and media personality. Noshika began her career winning the Miss Sri Lanka for Miss World contest and went on to commercials before making ...

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".

Junkyard Theory

Sunethkumara started a podcast during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

called Junkyard Theory where he hosts filmmakers from Hollywood on a livestream. The first education platform of its kind in Sri Lanka, it also offers short modular film courses. Sunethkumara has hosted prominent names in the industry such as

Louis Leterrier Louis Leterrier (; born 17 June 1973) is a French film and television director. Best known for his work in action films, he directed the first two '' Transporter'' films (2002–2005), '' The Incredible Hulk'' (2008), '' Clash of the Titans'' (2 ...

, Mike Knobloch,

John Toll John Toll, (born June 15, 1952) is an American cinematographer and television producer. Toll's filmography spans a wide variety of genres, including epic period drama, comedy, science fiction, and contemporary drama. He won the Academy Awa ...

, Paul Hirsch,

Donald Sylvester Donald Sylvester is an American sound editor. He is best known for his work with James Mangold on the films ''A Complete Unknown'', ''Ford v Ferrari'', ''Logan'', '' 3:10 to Yuma'' , and ''Walk the Line''. Sylvester won the Academy Award for Be ...

, Richard Norton, Joel Crawford and

Simon Barry Simon Barry (born 25 September 1966) is a Canadian screenwriter, film producer, director and television producer. Career Barry is best known for his work on the Canadian sci-fi series '' Continuum'' (2012–2015). In 2013, building on his tra ...

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.

Filmography

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sunethkumara, Akash 1994 births Living people Sri Lankan film directors