Actor Levan Gelbakhiani, feature 'And Then We Danced' among prize-winners of Valladolid Film Festival
From left: film director Levan Akin and actors Levan Gelbakhiani and Bachi Valishvili speak at the Directors' Fortnight festival in Cannes where the feature premiered in April. Photo: Directors' Fortnight festival.
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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.
Gelbakhiani was singled out for the honour at the closing gala of the 64th edition of the festival that screened over 270 feature and short films and celebrated Georgia in the Guest Country section.
For the young actor the Spanish award follows the Best Actor Award at the Sarajevo Film Festival earlier this year, for his role of a dancer in a conservative Georgian national dance ensemble involved in an emotional encounter with another male performer.
Stefan Schmitz of the film's distribution company Avalon collected the Rainbow Spike prize for the feature in Valladolid:
Stefan Schmitz @smtze, director general de @Avaloncine, recoge los premios para nuestra película #andthenwedanced en la #64Seminci Right now! pic.twitter.com/ANKWnxHBTa
— Avalon (@Avaloncine) October 26, 2019
The Spanish festival - also known as Seminci - also marked the film itself with the Rainbow Spike prize, awarded by the festival and the Triangulo Foundation for works on the subject of sexual diversity and gender identity. The award was introduced in last year's edition of the festival.
I hope that, going forward, awards like this will help people from all around the world be free to tell honest stories" - Stefan Schmitz of Avalon, distribution company for the feature
And Then We Danced is a Swedish-Georgian-French co-production directed by Levan Akin, a Swedish-based director whose parents emigrated from Georgia in the 1970s. The filmmaker earned awards including the Carl International Film Festival Best Film prize for his work, which has also been selected as Sweden's bid at the next Academy Awards.
The Valladolid festival screened nearly two dozen films by Georgian directors as part of its Guest Country format, with panel talks about Georgian cinema and a presentation of a book about the subject giving it further exposure at the event.
These included both fiction and documentary works, with feature and short films presented in the programme.
Considered a major celebration of auteur cinema in Spain, the festival has been held in the north-western city since 1956.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Georgian Interior Ministry has promised to ensure safety and freedom of expression amid threats voiced by ultra-nationalist groups just before the premiere of And Then We Danced movie in Tbilisi and Batumi cinemas starting later today.
A Swedish-Georgian-French co-production And Then We Danced has premiered in Georgian cinemas today amid radical groups' protest. The police which promised to ensure safety and freedom of expression amid threats voiced by ultra-nationalist groups earlier today, have detained eleven protesters for violation of public order and police disobedience.
Levan Akin's award-winning feature And Then We Danced will be part of the line-up at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival next month, bringing a personal story of love to the high-profile cinema event.
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.
Georgia's emerging acting talent Levan Gelbakhiani is one of 10 young performers selected as this year's European Shooting Stars by the European Film Promotion and will be unveiled to the Berlin International Film Festival audience to accept the award next month.
From pioneering director Kote Mikaberidze's silent classic My Grandmother to contemporary works by award-winning filmmakers including Nana Ekvtimishvili and Otar Iosseliani, Georgian cinema will enjoy a special status at Spain's Valladolid International Film Festival opening this Saturday.
Georgia's young cinema talents Levan Gelbakhiani and Irakli Kvirikadze, winners of the European Shooting Stars awards in 2020 and 2018 respectively, have been interviewed for their take on the prize and its effect on their burgeoning careers in film.