Veteran actress Anoma Janadari won the Best Actress Award (Snow Leopard Award) for the role of Kusum in the film 'Burning Birds' at the Asian World Film Festival 2017 in Los Angeles, USA.  This is the first major award won by a Sri Lankan actor after fourteen years.

Director of the film Sanjeewa Pushpakumara collected the award. Anoma was unable to attend the ceremony as she was not aware of the award. In a Facebook post, she has mentioned that she got to know about the award after receiving a call from fellow actor Dasun Pathirana.

The award is to be presented to the actress at a special ceremony hosted by the Film Corporation in Sri Lanka in near future.

The film festival, held at the Arclight Cinemas Culver City and the Culver Hotel, from October 25 to November 2, screening 37 films from 22 countries.' A Taxi Driver' from South Korea won the prize for best film while special jury award went to 'Mad World'. The Snow Leopard for best actor went to Kyrgyzstan actor Aktan Arym Kubat in “Centaur”. Many films contested in the festival featured in Golden Globe Awards and Academy Awards.

This is the sixteenth film festival ‘Burning Birds’ contested and the film has won four international awards so far and has not screened in Sri Lanka yet.