Filmmaker Levan Akin takes Sweden’s Carl Film Festival principal prize for ‘And Then We Danced’
Levan Akin, director of 'And Then We Danced', with the Carl Film Festival award for the feature. Photo: Helena Pataki.
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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.
The drama was revealed as the winner of the Baltic Sea Competition at the festival's third edition, collecting the prize and a money prize for its portrayal of a romantic encounter between two male dancers in a conservative Georgian troupe.
Akin, born in Stockholm to parents who emigrated from Georgia in the 1970s, accepted the award himself in Karlskrona in Sweden's south.
And Then We Danced shows Merab, a young performer in the Georgian national dance company develop intense attraction to newcomer Irakli.
Their relationship unfolds on the backdrop of the masculine performance group as Merab, played by Sarajevo Film Festival award-winning Levan Gelbakhiani, "finds himself having to break free and risk everything", the film's summary reads.
When the charismatic Irakli joins the group, everything changes and Merab is thrown into an emotional storm of both strong desire and jealousy for his new companion" - Carl Film Festival
The Swedish-Georgian-French co-production casts Bachi Valishvili in the role of Irakli, the other protagonist.
Premiered at this year’s Directors’ Fortnight festival in Cannes in May, the feature screened at the major Balkan festival in Sarajevo ealier this month before juries singled out Gelbakhiani for the prize.
The Carl International Film Festival saw five works vie for the Baltic Sea Competition prize.
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.
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.
new feature film by a Georgian director is set to make its world premiere to an audience of more than 100,000 at a top Scandinavian film festival.
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.
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.
Filmmaker Levan Akin, director of the award-winning feature And Then We Danced, is among film professionals invited to become the latest members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, receiving the honour from the prestigious American organisation for his directorial work.
Film director Levan Akin, recipient of awards from international festivals for his feature And Then We Danced, has revealed he is working on a new film project, with shootings set to be held in Turkey and Georgia.