Levan Gelbakhiani claims Sarajevo Film Fest award for best actor
Actor Levan Gelbakhiani collected his award in Sarajevo where the feature by Levan Akin screened in the main competition section. Photo: Obala Art Centar.
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Actor Levan Gelbakhiani, cast as the principal protagonist of the newly released feature And Then We Danced by filmmaker Levan Akin, has been unveiled as the winner of the Best Actor Award at the Sarajevo Film Festival.
The Georgian actor was on stage in the Bosnian capital to collect the prize for his part in the drama, one of four films from Georgia screened at the major regional festival.
The prize, formally known as Heart of Sarajevo for Best Actor, comes with a money prize and marks an early success for the feature that brings a personal story to the big screen.
In Akin's work, an encounter between Gelbakhiani's character — a dancer at a Georgian national troupe with conservative traditional heritage — and a newcomer to the ensemble leads to mutual attraction between the two young men.
The relationship unfolds on the backdrop of the masculine performance group as Merab, played by the Sarajevo award-winning actor, "finds himself having to break free and risk everything", a summary from the festival said.
The Swedish-Georgian-French co-production casts Bachi Valishvili in the role of Irakli, the other protagonist, with photography from Lisabi Fridell.
Part of the competition section, And Then We Danced screened at the Balkan festival in three sessions. The feature premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight festival in Cannes in April.
Akin, a Swedish-based director with Georgian roots, was featured at the event beside Georgian directors Irina Jordania, Rati Tsiteladze and Petre Tomadze.
Jordania's short 12 K Marx Street was part of the short competition section, with Prisoner of Society by Tsiteladze and the animation Night Session from Tomadze also in festival sections.
The Sarajevo Film Festival comes to a close on Friday.
Georgian filmmakers Giorgi Tavartkiladze and Rati Tsiteladze will bring their recent short works to this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival, which is scheduled to open later this month.
Four films from Georgia, ranging between short works to student productions, are on the big screen for an audience of over 100,000 cinephiles at the ongoing Sarajevo Film Festival — the leading cinema event of the Balkan region.
Swedish-Georgian co-production And Then We Danced will have its world premiere at this year’s Directors’ Fortnight festival in Cannes next month.
Georgian filmmaker Rati Tsiteladze has added another prize to international honours awarded to his new documentary Prisoner of Society, after the short film on a transgender woman in Georgia was singled out at the NDU International Film Festival in Lebanon.
Swedish-based film director Levan Akin, whose feature And Then We Danced has earned critical acclaim at international festivals since its release, has collected the latest accolade in the form of the Best Film Award at the Carl International Film Festival in Sweden.
Filmmaker Levan Akin's Swedish-Georgian-French co-production And Then We Danced has been picked as Sweden's submission for the Best International Feature Film competition at the next Academy Awards.
Filmmaker Levan Akin's feature And Then We Danced has been nominated for the European University Film Award, a prize by university students throughout Europe.
Swedish-Georgian co-production And Then We Danced, has won the Iris Prize Best Feature Award, which is an international LGBT film prize.
Georgian actor Levan Gelbakhiani has claimed latest round of plaudits for his performance in filmmaker Levan Akin's feature And Then We Danced after collecting the Best Actor Award at Spain's Valladolid International Film Festival last weekend, with the film itself also honoured at the event.
The festival-touring feature And Then We Danced by director Levan Akin received accolade at the Chicago International Film Festival, with the film about an emotional encounter of two male dancers joining winners of the 55th edition over the weekend.
Levan Akin's award-winning feature And Then We Danced will be part of the line-up at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival next month, bringing a personal story of love to the high-profile cinema event.
The widening collection of international awards for director Levan Akin's feature And Then We Danced and its protagonist Levan Gelbakhiani saw the addition of four prizes at the Guldbagge Awards, the leading cinema awards in Sweden, on Monday.
Georgia's emerging acting talent Levan Gelbakhiani is one of 10 young performers selected as this year's European Shooting Stars by the European Film Promotion and will be unveiled to the Berlin International Film Festival audience to accept the award next month.
Georgia's young cinema talents Levan Gelbakhiani and Irakli Kvirikadze, winners of the European Shooting Stars awards in 2020 and 2018 respectively, have been interviewed for their take on the prize and its effect on their burgeoning careers in film.