French wine film festival honours Georgian filmmakers

A French festival bringing together wine culture with cinema awarded three of its principal prizes to two Georgian filmmakers this week.

A film involving producer and author Ketevan Sadghobelashvili and another work directed by Nana Jorjadze won prizes at the annual festival, which screened documentary and fiction productions and hosted exhibitions of wine-related photographs.

In total 103 films from 12 countries were submitted to the 2016 Oenovideo International Grape and Wine Film Festival in Paris, France.

See the trailer for Nana Jorjadze's 2016 documentary 'Prime Meridian of Wine' below:

The annual festival concluded on Wednesday with an awards ceremony where 14 prizes were awarded after judges reviewed 28 films shortlisted for the official selection. Films shortlisted for the official selection came from Canada, Georgia, Slovenia and France.

One of the top 14 awards, the Best Director prize, went to the 2013 film Lost in Vine, produced by Sadghobelashvili. The prize was awarded by the Grand Jury of the festival.

The documentary work follows Georgian winemaker Koba Kvatchrelishvili, whose wine make triumphed at a Georgian wine festival. The occasion served as a meeting place between the vineyard owner and author of the film. 

This prize was not just a recognition of one film, or one person, or even one working team, but - as the French hosts said themselves - it was an award for representing our country in the best way," said Ketevan Sadghobelashvili while commenting on the award.

Lost in Vine also collected the Landscape and Environment Award from the Oenovideo festival's partners.

The two awards handed to the film at the occasion followed the documentary's earlier win at the 2014 Silk Road Film Festival in China, where the work was recognised with the Audience Prize.

Film director Nana Jorjadze was honoured at the Oenovideo festival by French wine magazine Revue des Oenologues. Photo from Hector Mata/AFP/Getty Images.

Another prize awarded by the festival’s partners was an award named after the French wine magazine Revue des Oenologues.

The award went to celebrated Georgian filmmaker Nana Jorjadze for her new documentary Prime Meridian of Wine, which explores the place of Georgia in the global history of winemaking.

Jorjadze has directed over a dozen films since her debut in 1979. She was awarded the Best First Feature Prize at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival for her 1986 comedy Robinsonada or My English Grandfather.