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Tato Kotetishvili’s Holy Electricity headed the winners at the second edition of Georgia’s Eliso film awards.

Holy Electricity received the best film prize, from a seven-person jury that included Agnieszka Holland and Carlos Reygadas.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

The film follows two cousins who discover abandoned crosses in a Tbilisi scrapyard, turning them into neon art which they sell across the Georgian capital. It debuted at Locarno film festival last summer, going on to play Thessaloniki, Tallinn, Goteborg and Rotterdam among others.

Kotetishvili also won the best cinematography award for the film, while he was nominated for best director.

In this moving Turkish movie on healing and starting over again, writer-director Levan Akin takes his two generation-challenged protagonists on a journey of self-discovery.

Okay, that sounds fairly cliched as far as road movies are concerned. But wait! Crossing is not what we think. It is a work of fragile beauty. It draws its strength from the flaws and fragilities of its characters, neither judging nor condemning them for their fatal weaknesses.

Lia (Mzia Arabuli ) is a veteran who has braved many war wounds…not at the border, but within her home front where the scars tell stories of immense family betrayals. Lia is now off to look for her transgender niece, whom Lia’s sister and Lia failed to support.

So, is this an atonement or an adventure? Perhaps a bit of both. Writer-director Levan Akin lets Liya and her unlikely travelling partner, a young restless teen named Achi...

Levan Akin’s Crossing and Frida Kempff’s The Swedish Torpedo headed the winners at Sweden’s Guldbagge national film awards, presented in Stockholm on Monday, January 13.

Crossing won the best film award, presented to producer Mathilde Dedye – the second time Akin and Dedye have taken the top Guldbagge award, after And Then We Danced in 2020.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

Akin received the best director prize, with the film also winning best cinematography for Lisabi Fridell, and best sound design for Anne Gry Friis Kristensen and Sigrid Dpa Jensen.

Crossing opened the Panorama strand at last...

Crossing, the fourth feature film from Swedish filmmaker Levan Akin (And Then We Danced), opens with white serif text that reads: “Both Georgian and Turkish are gender-neutral languages: they make no distinction of grammatical gender.” This linguistic factoid becomes instantly relevant as the film focuses on one Georgian woman’s...

After the critically acclaimed “And Then We Danced” from 2019, Levan Akin comes back with another movie that critiques societal norms in relation to the Lgbtqia+ themes. The film, inspired by a heart-warming story about a senior who was supportive of his trans grandchild, premiered at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Panorama Audience Award, and won the Teddy Award.

The story, written by Akin himself, follows Lia (Mzia Arabuli), as she tries to find and bring her transgender niece back home. According to her unexpected companion, Achi (Lucas Kankava), she went to Istanbul. These two set off on a journey to the capital of Turkey, where they explore new surroundings, as well as themselves.

“Crossing”, unlike “And Then We Danced”, doesn't have a classic narrative structure – the scenes are not always directly connected, and thus it is not the easiest to follow. The movie...

In his 2019 breakout feature, And Then We Danced, Swedish writer-director Levan Akin examined gay self-discovery and defiant sexuality against the rigid gender codes of a traditional Georgian dance company. His warmly humanistic new film, Crossing, explores another story of queer identity in an unaccommodating environment, this time using an odd-couple journey to advocate for trans acceptance. Observed with granular detail and imbued with a pulsing sense of place, this novelistic drama takes time to connect its central triangle but does so with a suppleness and restraint that amplify the emotional rewards of its lovely open-ended conclusion.

That sense of place applies to two principal settings as well as the sprawling space in between. It opens in Batumi, on the rocky Black Sea coast of southwest Georgia, and then shifts to the teeming streets and crumbling apartment blocks of Istanbul’s high-density, low-income quarters, where the title expands beyond geographical borders...

Visiting Istanbul, you can’t help but notice all of the cats: The Turkish metropolis is swarming with strays, some gorgeous and friendly, others haggard and more stand-offish. Entire films have been made about the phenomenon (of which “Kedi” was an especially popular example). But what of the countless other souls — the human ones — who also live on the margins of this modern city? They too are invisible until noticed. But if you look closely, it becomes impossible to unsee the homeless children and street sellers, sex workers and immigrants, many of them struggling to survive.

With “Crossing,” writer-director Levan Akin wants to open our eyes to the easily overlooked. After earning international acclaim with Cannes-selected queer drama “And Then We Danced,” Akin makes a calculated choice to raise awareness of the trans community in Istanbul, but he does so through representation rather than manipulation. “Crossing” tells the engaging if...

Editor’s Note: This review originally published during the 2023 Berlin Film Festival. Mubi will release “Crossing” in select theaters on Friday, July 19 before it streams August 30.

In “Crossing,” the new film from “And Then We Danced” director Levan Akin, the earthy spirit of Italian icon Anna Magnani is channeled by not one but two actresses who resemble her. There’s Mzia Arabuli as Lia, a retired schoolteacher on a journey from Batumi in Georgia to Istanbul in Turkey to find her missing trans niece, and Deniz Dumanli as Evrim, the trans Ngo lawyer the movie dupes us into thinking is Lia’s niece. The two women are as far apart on the joie de vivre spectrum as any pair could be — Lia has calcified into an emotionless stone who gives away nothing, while Evrim lives freely and sexually liberated in an otherwise LGBTQ-challenged country — yet “Crossing” movingly bridges the space...

Paris-based sales company Totem Films has boarded Lovisa Siren’s new film “Sagres,” a dynamic European road movie.

“Sagres,” which has just gone into production, follows two sisters and a teenage daughter who travel from Stockholm, Sweden, to the picturesque cliffs of Sagres, Portugal — located in the southwestern most part of Europe, known as “The End of the World.”

Maya, the younger sister, is a free-spirited, half-failing musician who has left her son in Portugal with her mother, while older sibling Nilo is a control freak in a sexless marriage. When the sisters’ mother phones up to say she’s sick, the pair — joined by Nilo’s rambunctious teenage daughter Laura — embarks on a road trip through Europe to reunite in Sagres, culminating in a tragicomic reunion no one expected.

“Sagres” marks Siren’s feature debut. Her 2014 film “Pussy Have the Power” picked up the Best Short Award at the Goteberg Film Festival.

And Then We Danced, Levan Akin’s Georgian-language drama that premiered in Cannes’ Director’s Fortnight program last year, scooped the best film prize at last night’s Guldbagge Awards, Sweden’s primary awards ceremony.

At a ceremony in Stockholm, Akin’s movie also picked up best male lead for Levan Gelbakhiani, best script for Akin, and cinematography for Lisabi Fridell. The film is a coming-of-age tale set amidst the conservative confines of modern Tbilisi, following a competitive dancer who is thrown off balance by the arrival of a fellow male dancer with a rebellious streak.

Pella Kagerman and Hugo Lilja’s sci-fi Aniara also had a good night, taking best director, best female lead for Emelie Garbers, female supporting role for Bianca Cruzeiro and best visual effects. The pic premiered at Toronto in 2018.

Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite scooped best foreign film as the movie continues its prolific global awards run.

The former took best film with the latter winning best director.

Levan Akin’s Cannes 2019 title And Then We Danced and Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja’s Toronto 2018 film Aniara led the winners at the 2020 Guldbagge Awards, held on January 20 in Stockholm, Sweden.

Both films picked up four awards each. And Then We Danced took best film, best actor for Levan Gelbakhiani, best screenplay for Akin, and best cinematography for Lisabi Fridell; while Aniara received best director, best actress for Emelie Garbers, best supporting actress for Bianca Cruzeiro, and best visual effects for Arild Andersson, Per Jonsson and Andreas Wicklund.

The sci-fi epic Aniara has scooped four gongs, with a low yield for main contenders Roy Andersson and Mikael Håfström. In what has been called a lacklustre Swedish film year, the clearest beacon of light in 2019 was surely provided by Levan Akin in his heartfelt tale of a forbidden romance between two male dancers in the conservative Georgian dance community, And Then We Danced. It opened in the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, became Sweden’s submission for the 92nd Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film and has now been sold to nearly 40 territories. The co-production between Sweden’s Mathilde Dedye and Georgia’s Ketie Danelia, with additional co-production by Julien Féret, picked up the Guldbagge Awards for Best Film, Best Lead Actor (for Levan Gelbakhiani), Best Script (Akin) and Best Cinematography (Lisabi Fridell). Last week, it was awarded the Greta, the annual award handed out by the...

Levan Akin's And Then We Danced, a gay coming-of-age tale set in the ballet scene in the staunchly conservative and still very homophobic country of Georgia in Eastern Europe, has won best film at the Guldbagge Awards, Sweden's top film honor.

Levan Gelbakhiani took best actor for his debut role as a performer in the National Georgian Ballet who is thrown off balance by his growing attraction to a fellow male dancer. Akin also picked up a Guldbagge for best screenplay, and the film won best cinematography for Lisabi Fridell.

Best directing honors, however, went to Pella Kagerman and ...

Levan Akin's And Then We Danced, a gay coming-of-age tale set in the ballet scene in the staunchly conservative, and still very homophobic, country of Georgia in Eastern Europe, has won best film at the Guldbagge Awards, Sweden's top film honor.

Levan Gelbakhiani took best actor for his debut role as a performer in the National Georgian Ballet who is thrown off balance by his growing attraction to a fellow male dancer. Akin also picked up a Guldbagge for best screenplay and the film won best cinematography for Lisabi Fridell.

Best directing honors, however, went to Pella Kagerman and ...

Debut competition titles at cinematography festival unveiled.

Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography (Nov 15-22), has revealed the line-up of films screening in three of the festival’s competition sections including Cinematographers’ Debut, Directors’ Debut and Student Etudes.

The entries are:

Cinematographers’ Debut Competition

Duane Hopkins’ Bypass;

UK, 2014; Cinematographer: David Procter

Sidney Lexy Plaut’s Dark Samurai;

Denmark, 2014; Cinematographer: Sidney Lexy Plaut

Zeresenay Berhane Mehari’s Difret;

Ethiopia, USA, 2014; Cinematographer: Monika Lenczewska

Krzysztof Skonieczny’s Hardkor Disko;

Poland, 2014; Cinematographer: Kacper Fertacz

Arild Østin Ommundsen’s It’s Only Make Believe;

Norway, 2013; Cinematographer: Arild Østin Ommundsen

Michael Cody and Amiel Courtin-Wilson’s Ruin;

Australia, 2013; Cinematographer: Ari Wegner

Ester Martin Bergsmark’s Something Must Break;

Sweden, 2014; Cinematographers: Lisabi Fridell and Minka Jakerson

David Pablos’ The Life After;

Mexico, 2013; Cinematographer: José De- La-Torre

Saar Klein’s Things People Do;

USA, 2014; Cinematographer: Matthias Koenigswieser

Jonas Alexander Arnby’s When Animals Dream;

Denmark, 2013; Cinematographer: [link=nm...