Producer Vladimer Katcharava on ‘Asian Oscars’ jury team

Award-winning Georgian producer Vladimer Katcharava will be on the jury team for this year’s Asia Pacific Screen Awards, a prestigious regional event often referred to as the ‘Asian Oscars’.

Katcharava, who worked on director Mariam Khatchvani’s prized films Dinola (2013) and Dede (2017), will take up his spot among the judges later this month in Brisbane.

The international jury panel will be headed by Russian producer Alexander Rodnyansky, a celebrated cinema figure who has produced major films by notable filmmakers since the 1990s.

Katcharava photographed with filmmaker Mariam Khatchvani, whom he has collaborated with on award-winning films ‘Dinola’ and ‘Dede’. Photo: Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

He will be joined by Indonesian director Nia Dinata, Nepalese writer and producer and Antonia Zegers, an award-winning Chilean actor.

The international jury will be one of four teams of judges working to reveal winners from 46 films submitted from 22 countries.

Katcharava established 20 Steps Productions in Georgia in 2010 and has worked on short and feature films by directors from the country and abroad.

The producer’s collaboration with Khatchvani resulted in a range of awards for Dinola and the feature Dede, the latter taking the Cultural Diversity Award at last year’s APSA, among other prizes.

Earlier this year he was at the Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival to collect the FIPRESCI Jury Prize, awarded to Dede, for Khatchvani.

The Georgian film professional also co-produced Girls of the Sun, a feature by Eva Husson, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Katcharava was part of the 2015 Sundance Script Lab and the 2012 Cannes Film Festival’s Producers on the Move, among other development and talent programmes.