Dea Kulumbegashvili's debut feature 'Beginning' selected as Georgia's Oscar bid
Actor Ia Sukhitashvili is cast as the protagonist of 'Beginning'. Photo via San Sebastian Film Festival.
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Dea Kulumbegashvili's debut feature Beginning has been unveiled as Georgia's bid for the next Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, after a Georgian National Film Centre commission picked the Toronto- and San Sebastian Film Festival-winning film for the honour on Wednesday.
The 12-member commission made its selection from a shortlist that also included Uta Beria's Georgian-French-Italian co-production drama Negative Numbers and Odesa International Film Festival prize nominee Ursus by Otar Shamatava.
After the three works were screened to the juries, they announced their pick in the evening, with Kulumbegashvili's film - called an "emotionally compelling debut feature" at the Canadian festival - receiving a large majority of the votes.
The commission that selected Kulumbegashvili's feature debut for the Oscar submission. Photo via GNFC.
The first feature by the director shows a Jehovah's witness woman and her family in a remote town in Georgia, where both the police and an extremist group subject them to violence.
The protagonist in the plot becomes a target of locals when her place of worship is burned down during a service. Despite having a CCTV footage as evidence of the crime, the local police are indifferent at best to attempts of Yana and her husband to claim justice.
Beginning earned its director the FIPRESCI international film critics award at the Toronto International Film Festival and four of the principal awards at the San Sebastian event last month.
The film also received acclaim at other events, with the New York Film Festival calling it an "occasionally harrowing depiction of women’s roles in both religious and secular society".
The next Academy Awards ceremony is set o take place on April 25, 2021.
Dea Kulumbegashvili's Toronto- and San Sebastian Film Festival-winning feature Beginning will compete with Uta Beria's Georgian-French-Italian co-production drama Negative Numbers and Odesa International Film Festival prize nominee Ursus by Otar Shamatava for the selection of Georgia's next Academy Award bid.
Dea Kulumbegashvili has collected the FIPRESCI international film critics award at the Toronto International Film Festival for her feature debut Beginning, with the film praised for an "emotionally compelling debut".
The upcoming New York Film Festival will have Dea Kulumbegashvili's feature 'Beginning' in the Main Slate programme, in the same week the film has its world debut at the San Sebastian Film Festival.
The film Beginning directed by Georgian Dea Kulumbegashvili has received ‘the golden shell’ at the San Sebastian Film Festival, the event’s first prize. Kulumbegashvili has also received 'the silver shell' for best director. Together with Rati Oneli she also received jury prize for best screenplay. Meanwhile Ia Sukhitashvili received 'the silver shell' for best actress as well.
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Filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili's award-winning feature debut Beginning is in the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival, published in place of the usual running of the festival, curtailed due to the pandemic this year.
Filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili's Toronto- and San Sebastian Film Festival prize-winning feature Beginning is coming to viewers of the International Film Festival Rotterdam next month.
Sofia International Film Festival, launched on Friday, is screening filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili's award-winning feature debut Beginning as part of its programme.
Acclaimed Georgian director Dea Kumulbegashvili, whose feature Beginning won the San Sebastian Film Festival last year, will be the chair of this year’s festival. Kulumbegashvili is the winner of four official awards of the festival for her debut film, including the Golden Shell for Best Film, the Silver Shell for Best Director and the Jury Prize for Best Screenplay.
A national panel of film professionals has selected director Levan Koguashvili's Tribeca Film Festival award-winning Brighton 4th as Georgia's contender for the next Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.
Georgian actor Merab Ninidze has won the best actor prize for his role in House Arrest at Asia Pacific Screen Awards 2021. In the film, Ninidze plays David, a Russian professor who is falsely accused of embezzlement and placed under a house arrest after criticising the administration of his city on social media.
In the latest international recognition for her debut feature Beginning, filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili claimed the principal prize of the Trieste Film Festival in Italy on Sunday.
Georgia's award-winning film director Dea Kulumbegashvili will be one of the three judges working on selecting the best works from the films set to screen in the Encounters programme of the next edition of the Berlin International Film Festival this month.