Rusudan Glurjidze’s ’House of Others’ nominated for major US award

The cinematographer of Georgian filmmaker Rusudan Glurjidze’s award-winning feature, House of Others, has been nominated for a prestigious award by the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) for his work on the film.

Gorka Gomez Andreu will be one of four cinema professionals in competition for the AC Spotlight Award, with the official ceremony to be held on February 4 in California.

The Spanish cinematographer was nominated alongside Juliette van Dormael (My Angel), Lol Crawley (Childhood of a Leader) and Ernesto Pardo (Tempestad) for the prize that "recognises outstanding cinematography” in feature films.

See the trailer for Rusudan Glurjidze's feature 'House of Others' below:

Andreu’s work on House of Others has been praised at various international festivals and competitions since its premiere at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival last year, where it claimed the top prize in the East of the West competition category.

Organisers of the prestigious Czech festival called the feature "a supremely auteurist work whose visual qualities hold their ground with those of Tarkovsky and Zvyagintsev, confirming the unprecedented rise of Georgian cinema”.

The film also took the International Press Academy prize for Best First Feature Award and has been selected as Georgia’s bid for the 2017 Academy Awards.

Narrating a story of two families that survive the destructive war in Abkhazia in the early 1990s, the film shows civilians on the winning side being haunted by memories as they are given houses cleared of their expelled owners.

Andreu’s cinematography for ‘House of Others’ has been praised by film critics and festival organisers since its premiere in 2016. Photo: House of Others film Facebook page.

Born in Vitoria, Spain in 1978, Gorka Gomez Andreu graduated from the Universidad de Navarra in 2000 and TAI Cinema School of Madrid in 2003.

Working as director of photography since 2007, he received the Best Cinematographer Debut award at the Camerimage Film Festival for feature film, Chaika, directed by Miguel Angel Jimenez.

The ASC Spotlight Award is part of the society’s Outstanding Achievement Awards, the recipients of which are selected annually.

The awards were established to highlight "stellar work in theatrical features, television projects and student films, and also honour select cinematographers and other filmmakers for their career achievements.”

See a showreel featuring cinematographic work by Gorka Gomez Andreu below:

See the full list of nominees for this year’s awards here.

Attracting over a thousand cinema professionals, sponsors and distinguished visitors, this year’s ceremony will mark the 31st edition of the awards at the Hollywood & Highland’s Ray Dolby Ballroom in Los Angeles.

Last year’s Spotlight Award went to Adam Arkapaw for his work on Macbeth and Matyas Erdely for Son of Saul.

The ASC was founded in 1919 with the aim of promoting cinema art and bringing together film professionals. It is promoted as "the first organisation in the film industry to be devoted exclusively to furthering and honouring professional achievement”.