Lanka Bandaranayke

Lanka Bandaranayke is a Sri Lankan filmmaker, scholar, and founder and CEO of Lanka Cine (PVT) Ltd, known for producing acclaimed, socially responsible films. As a social entrepreneur, she advocates for women’s empowerment and gender equality through media, research, and education.

Starting her career as a theatre artist, she later moved into filmmaking. She made several award-winning short films and documentaries screened at international film festivals worldwide. Her short film productions such as “Tradition” (2016), “Inheritance” (2020) and “Mahasona” (2021) were screened at numerous international film festivals, including Locarno in 2018 and won awards such as Best Short Film at the Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival 2017 and Best Cinematography at the Euro Kino Czech International Independent Film Festival 2017. She partnered with the British Council Sri Lanka, GIZ and Goethe Institute for her film productions. Her debut feature project, “The Hail,” was selected for the Film Independent-Global Media Makers residency in the USA in 2022, where she developed the project with Hollywood mentors. Her Documentary, “Sri Lanka Women Peacebuilders” (2023) transnational project commissioned by the International Network of Engaged Buddhists in Thailand. She is currently working on two projects: “Her Anthem of Hope” (working title) in partnership with Newcastle University and “Differed” (working title) in collaboration with Bournemouth University.

In 2019, she received an Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) scholarship to study filmmaking at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television School in Kolkata. In 2021, she completed a Master’s degree in Directing Film and Television from Bournemouth University in the UK with a Chevening Scholarship.

Lanka has been recognized for her leadership, social entrepreneurship and career achievements with several awards, including the Study UK Alumni Award 2024 from the British Council of Sri Lanka, the Chevening Alumni of the Year 2024 Award, and the International Alumni of the Year 2024 Award from Bournemouth University.
Recently, she has been collaborating as the South Asian industry partner for the research project “Exploring the Ethics in Transnational Media Decolonisation,” part of the broader “Developing Media Decolonisation Imaginary (DMDI)” research at Bournemouth University in the UK. She is the Country Chair for Sri Lanka for the G100 Arts Leadership and Films, the G100 Global Women Leaders collection.