See new films by Georgian directors at New York festival

An annual New York festival revealing emerging filmmakers from across the globe will showcase two films by Georgian directors Dea Kulumbegashvili and Nana Ekvtimishvili next month.

Over two dozen specially selected films will screen over 10 days of New Directors/New Films festival, presented by the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

Opening on March 15, the event will run through March 26 and seek to celebrate "daring artists whose work pushes the envelope”, said its organisers.

Dea Kulumbegashvili’s short ‘Lethe’ premiered in Cannes, France last year. Photo: commeaucinema.com.

Celebrating the festival’s 46th edition, the program will screen short, feature and documentary works by filmmakers from Argentina to Poland to Tunisia.

Among the selected films will be Lethe by Dea Kulumbegashvili — a short about "the world of rural Georgia in the midst of the beautiful ritual of the autumn harvest.”

Premiering at Directors’ Fortnight festival in Cannes, France last year, the Georgian-French co-production was also shown at Trieste Film Festival in Italy last month.

A scene from ‘Lethe’ by Dea Kulumbegashvili. Photo: commeaucinema.com.

The program for the New York cinema event will also include My Happy Family, the newest feature by the directorial duo of Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross.

A co-production between Germany, France and Georgia, the film was screened at the prestigious Berlinale festival this month after its debut at the other celebrated event, the Sundance Film Festival.

Founded in 1972, the annual New Directors/New Films festival is known as a platform that introduced emerging filmmaking talent including Chantal Akerman, Laura Poitras and Pedro Almodovar to a wider public.

The event has showcased Georgian directors in its previous editions, with the 2015 festival premiering the feature Line of Credit by Salome Alexi.