’Scary Mother’, ’City of the Sun’ take awards, plaudits at San Francisco Film Fest

Scary Mother, the most decorated Georgian film of the past year, collected its latest plaudits at the San Francisco International Film Festival, where director Rati Oneli was also honoured for his documentary City of the Sun.

Judges of the event revealed Ana Urushadze’s award-winning work as the winner of a principal prize of the event, while Oneli’s feature received Special Mention of the documentary section.

Georgia’s submission for the 2018 Academy Awards, Scary Mother took the Golden Gate Award and the New Directors Prize as the festival came to a close today.

And the Golden Gate Award and the New Directors Prize goes to...#SFFILMFestivalpic.twitter.com/IcBnf66Iud

— SFFILM (@SFFILM) April 15, 2018

Urushadze, for whom the film is a debut feature, also received a cash prize of USD 10,000 and praise from the jury.

[Scary Mother was honoured] for its confident tone and unquestioning commitment to its fearless protagonist, a complicated artist caught between motherhood and the wilds of her own imagination”, said a summary by the panel.

Winner of an Asia Pacific Screen Awards prize and and First Feature Award from the Locarno International Film Festival, the drama premiered at the Swiss event last year.

The feature centres around a Georgian housewife who finally takes up her dream of writing, years after initially shelving the idea in favour of taking care of household work.

As the protagonist of the story begins reading her first published book to family members, she realises her fears of negative reception from relatives are becoming a reality.

The Georgia-Estonia co-production was among 26 films in the Golden Gate Award competitions of the festival.

A still from 'City of the Sun', which centres on western Georgian town Chiatura. Photo: City of the Sun film Facebook page.

For Oneli, the McBaine Documentary Feature Award Special Mention is also the latest in a line of international awards from festival events.

A winner of prizes and mentions at Sarajevo, ZagrebDox and Bergamo festivals, City of the Sun centres around a western Georgian town of Chiatura, a supplier of about half of the world's manganese demand during the Soviet era.

Located in the Imereti province, the city and its residents were hit with economic hardship since the dissolution of the USSR. With mining operations still almost the only source of employment for locals, their lives revolve around the industrial infrastructure and operation. 

A co-production between Georgia, the United States, Qatar, and the Netherlands, it was filmed by Oneli, who was prompted by impressions of the town to return to Georgia from his residence in New York.

The 2018 San Francisco International Film Festival ran between April 4-17.