Two Georgian film directors whose films have been nominated for a prestigious Academy Award have been honoured in their home country.
Local film directors Zaza Urushadze and George Ovashvili were honoured with special awards named ‘High Priest of Culture’ for contributing and promoting Georgian film internationally.
Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and Culture Minister Mikheil Giorgadze hosted the Tangerines (Mandarinebi) film crew at a special reception ceremony at Tbilisi Marriott yesterday.
Commemorative photo from the event. Photo by Ministry of Culture.
At the ceremony Georgia’s Prime Minister said it was "the right time" to move Georgian cinema to a new stage of development.
"I would like to sincerely congratulate on you this recognition, the success that is the victory of the Georgian cinema," Garibashvili said.
This is countless happiness for the Georgian nation that two Georgian-directed films have been shortlisted for the Oscars. We have a very long tradition of film producing. We understand that the film production process requires a lot of financial resources and needs help from the state. On behalf of the Government I would like to tell you that I will support all the most talented filmmakers."
Estonian-Georgian co-production Tangerines (Mandarinebi) was selected as one of five films in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the Oscars 2015.
Tangerines was presented for Oscars nomination by Estonia last year.
The movie will compete with other four films; Leviathan by Russia, Ida by Poland, Timbuktu by Mauritania and Wild Tales by Argentina.
The Academy Awards ceremony will be held on February 22 in Los Angeles.
Watch the film trailer below:
Meanwhile, another Georgian film Corn Island, directed by George Ovashvili made it into the nine-strong shortlist for the best foreign language film in the upcoming Academy Awards. The shortlist was part of the process toward narrowing down the main contenders that are nominated for an Oscar.
The film was presented for Oscars nomination by Georgia.