Dea Kulumbegashvili's debut feature 'Beginning' wins at Trieste Film Festival
The feature drama casts Ia Sukhitashvili, praised by the jury in Trieste, as the principal protagonist. Photo via Cannes Film Festival.
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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.
The drama centred around a young woman in a rural Georgian village was the juries' choice for the Best Feature Film at the 32nd edition of the festival. The Georgian-French co-production earned the panel's unanimous decision for the selection.
Kulumbegashvili's work was praised at the festival as a "debut film displaying a rare authorial confidence, as well as pure stylistic coherence". The judges also lauded Ia Sukhitashvili as "the astonishing lead actress" of the feature and said the acting, visual and audio elements of the film "continually encourage viewers to question their opinions on this astounding and thrilling story".
In Beginning, Yana, a Jehovah's Witness living in a small countryside village, encounters hostility from locals and law enforcement due to both her religious beliefs and her gender.
International Film Festival Rotterdam called it a "rock-solid debut [which] deals much more in female strength than in helplessness", pointing to the protagonist's decision to "strike at the very roots of patriarchal society" in response to the persecution.
The Dutch festival, set to run this month, selected the film for the Limelight programme, with Kulumbegashvili finding herself in the company of acclaimed cinema personalities like director Andrei Konchalovsky.
For the director, the Trieste award follows prizes for Beginning at eight international festivals, including four honours in San Sebastian and a Toronto International Film Fest prize. The film has also been picked as Georgia's bid for the next Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.
WWorks by nine Georgian women directors will comprise a programme of the Trieste Film Festival, one of Italy's premier cinematic celebrations, while a short by filmmaker Sandro Souladze has been picked for competition, and a Georgian-British co-production will screen in the feature section.
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Nearly three decades after a film by a Georgian director last competed for the principal award at the Berlin International Film Festival, director Alexandre Koberidze will see his feature What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? screen at the event in June.
Brighton 4th, Georgia's next Academy Award contender by director Levan Koguashvili, will open this year's Tbilisi International Film Festival, with the cinema celebrating bringing a range of general programmes in addition to focus sections on German film, famed director Agnes Varda, and more.
Film director Salome Jashi will see her Sundance Film Festival-screened documentary Taming the Garden shown to audiences of this year's Berlin Film Festival, which is expected to host the public-oriented part of the event in the summer.
Filmmakers Salome Jashi and Dea Kulumbegashvili have been nominated for this year's European Film Awards for their award-winning works Taming the Garden and Beginning, with thousands of European Film Academy members to vote for selections ahead of the awards ceremony in Berlin next month.
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.
Award-winning features Beginning and Taming the Garden by their respective directors Dea Kulumbegashvili and Salome Jashi will be among the latest Georgian films screened at the third Georgian Cinema Forum in the winter resort of Bakuriani starting this Friday.
Sofia International Film Festival, launched on Friday, is screening filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili's award-winning feature debut Beginning as part of its programme.
A series of displays and talks at Mexico's International Image Festival are introducing Georgia - a first-time participant of the event - to viewers through its Invited Country status.
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.
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 San Sebastian Film Festival-winning film for the honour on Wednesday.
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.
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".
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.