Filmmaker Tinatin Kajrishvili wins major production prize

A film still in production phase by Georgian director Tinatin Kajrishvili has won the main prize of Northern Europe's largest film market.

Jury of the 2016 Baltic Event selected Kajrishvili's work-in-progress film Citizen Saint as winner of the top award on Wednesday.

Citizen Saint was awarded the Eurimages Co-production Development Award and a €20,000 production prize at a special ceremony in Tallinn, Estonia.

The film competed for the award with 13 other in-production cinema projects from Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Luxembourg and Russia.

And the #Eurimages#CoProduction#Development#Award at Baltic Event Co-production Market is #CitizenSaint by... https://t.co/zQXHXT4byD

— Eurimages (@Eurimages) 24 November 2016

The festival jury said Kajrishvili's work was chosen for the award for its potential to appeal to audiences in Europe and beyond.

This black comedy tackles social and political issues at a time when populism is on the rise in Europe and elsewhere, making us question our individual responsibility in regards to this social phenomenon."

We are convinced that this emerging and talented director will deliver a film that has the potential to reach a wide audience," said National Film Centre of Latvia representative and jury member Uldis Dimisevskis.

The 2016 Baltic Event is held annually during the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

This year's Baltic Event was held from November 17-24 and involved nearly 500 cinema professionals who held more than 400 meetings about ongoing film projects and collaborations.

The annual gathering focused on connecting film and entertainment professionals from the Baltic region with industry experts in the US, Asia and Europe, said organisers.

Kajrishvili (R) and Khalvashi (C) photographed with Baltic Event managing director Marge Liiske. Photo from Eurimages.

This year Citizen Saint has already featured at a number of major networking and co-production events in Europe including at the official collaboration program of the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in France.

Citizen Saint is the Georgian filmmaker's second feature work and was produced by Lasha Khalvashi from Tbilisi-based Studio Artizm.

Khalvashi also collaborated with Kajrishvili on her first feature film Brides, which premiered at the 2014 Berlin International Film Festival.

See the full list of winners of the 2016 Baltic Event here.