14th Tbilisi International Film Festival reveals winners
By Tatia Megeneishvili
Monday, December 9
The Tbilisi International Film Festival (TIFF) awards ceremony was held on December 7 at the Amirani Cinema.
The Golden Prometheus for the Best Film went to Archil Kavtaradze for Disorder, the prize for the Best Direction, The Silver Prometheus, went to Erdem Tepegoz for Particle. The Sergey Paradjanov Prize for the Best Film Aesthetics and Visuals went to Medeas by Andrea Pallaoro.
The Georgian Panorama Winners received special prizes this year. The First Prize - a trip to the Cannes International Film Festival sponsored by the Institute of France in Tbilisi and TBC Bank, went to In Bloom by Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross. The Second Prize - a trip to the Goteborg International Film Festival, sponsored by the Swedish Institute and the Embassy of Sweden, went to Zaza Urushadze's Tangerines.
Earlier that day, a press conference was held at Tbilisi Marriott Hotel, where members of the jury spoke about the TIFF. American Director Michael Hoffman was the head of the jury. Other jury members were Iranian director, producer and screenwriter Samira Makhmalbaf, Polish film critic and producer Mateusz Werner, Georgian actor Giorgi Nakashidze and Hungarian architect and set designer Laszlo Rajk.
Jury members of the Georgian panorama, film historians and film critics, the founders of the International Forum for New Cinema at the Berlinale Film Festival, Ulrich Gregor and Erika Gregor (Germany), and film critic and director of the Pesaro International Film Festival Giovanni Spagnoletti (Italy) also took part in the press conference.
Hoffman said: “The thing that I most liked was the fact that audience who were viewing the movies were young, that gave me hope and I can say that these kind of movies have a bright future in Georgia.”
Werner focused mostly on films. “This year, the movies were very different, you could find almost all problematic issues in this region, show with the eye of artist. There was a search for identity, sexual, religious and political issues and they were shown sincerely,” stated Warner.
Ulrich Gregory said that he remembers the very first TIFF. “It was a long time ago, and then when we were just starting, we had many problems. Now when I look back, I see what huge progress we have made. At the very start, we had an almost empty cinema hall and now there was not a single empty place,” Gregory stressed.
Erica Gregory remembered 2008. “It was war-time in Georgia, the situation was hard, but we did our best to keep the TIFF going. It was important and always will be to keep the traditions up,” Gregory stated.
Jovany Spaniolet used the words of Jean-Luc Godard. “Cinema is Cinema, Quality is Quality, this year the TIFF operated on a high level, I feel that artist were following their inside voice,” Spaniolet stated.
TIFF was officially closed on December 8.