Georgian filmmaker George Ovashvili selected for prestigious festival jury

One of Georgia’s top filmmakers George Ovashvili has been selected to be part of a team of international judges at the largest film festival in Central and Eastern Europe, currently underway in the Czech Republic.

Ovashvili, who directed the award-winning 2014 feature film Corn Island, is sitting on a five-person Grand Jury at the 51st Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, held from July 1-9 in the Czech Republic's north-west.

During the festival Ovashvili must assess the films on show with other judges and film experts like European Film Academy award-winning Italian screenwriter Maurizio Braucci, film distributor and producer Eve Gabereau, Karlovy Vary Festival Best Actress award winner Martha Issova and Sundance Institute adviser and American producer Jay Van Hoy.

The Grand Jury must review many of the 200+ films presented within official competition sections of the Festival.

A scene from Ovashvili's 2009 work 'The Other Bank', which was his first film to screen at the Karlovy Vary Festival. Photo from www.trigon-film.org.

The Georgian filmmaker first had his work shown at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2009. At that time his debut feature film The Other Bank screened within the East of the West competition section.

His 2014 work Corn Island then collected the Crystal Globe for Best Film at the 49th edition of the Festival. Since its release the film has won more than 20 awards at international festivals and competitions and was nominated as Georgia's bid for the 2015 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Ovashvili's crew is currently filming his next feature Khibula in Georgia.

This year, the festival's East of the West section will include Georgian director Rusudan Glurjidze's work House of Others.

Another Georgian piece, Davit Pirtskhalava's short film Father, will be screened in a parallel program Future Frames: Ten New Filmmakers to Follow.

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival founded in 1946 and was granted the prestigious category A classification by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations a decade later.

The annual event involves famous cinema figures from across the world in attendance at 14 festival venues while around 700 reporters visit Karlovy Vary to cover the event.