Sumitra Peries (born 24 March 1935) is the first qualified Sri Lankan woman filmmaker and is known by all as the "Poetess of Sinhala Cinema". She also held the post of Sri Lanka's ambassador to France, Spain and the United Nations in the late 1990s. Of her films the more popular ones are Gehenu Lamai and Ganga Addara. She is married to the most prolific Sri Lankan film director Dr. Lester James Peries.