Georgia selected Dea Kulumbegashvili’s award winning feature debut “Beginning (Dasatskisi)” to represent the country in the International Feature Film category of the 93rd Academy Awards.
Beginning world premiered at the at San Sebastian Film Festival, and won the top awards including the Golden Shell for Best Film, along with the Silver Shell for Best Director for Dea Kulumbegashvili, the Silver Shell for Best Actress going to Ia Sukhitashvili and the Jury Prize for Best Screenplay going both to Kulumbegashvili herself and to Rati Oneli, also co-producer and actor in the film. The film also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival where it won the FIPRESCI prize.
The film narrates the harassment of a Jehovah’s Witness community attacked by an extremist group. Set in a sleepy provincial Georgian town, Yana, the community leader’s wife, struggles to make sense of her desires as her familiar world crumbles.
The 93rd Academy Awards will be held on April 25, 2021, and the nominations will be announced on March 15, 2021.