Dea Kulumbegashvili is a Georgian writer/director based in Tbilisi. Her debut short film Invisible Spaces was nominated for a Palme d’Or du Court Métrage at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014. It was also the first film from independent Georgia to be part of the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Dea’s second short film Léthé premiered at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival in the Directors’ Fortnight selection and played in dozens of other festivals around the world, including International Film Festival Rotterdam and MoMa’s New Directors/New Films. For her debut feature, Beginning, Dea was invited to the Cannes’ Cinéfondation Residency, and the Sam Spiegel International Film Lab in Jerusalem where she won a prize, as she did at The Sofia Meetings and the Rotterdam Festival Hubert Bals Fund. Beginning was invited to be part of the Official Selection at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival as well as the San Sebastian Film Festival’s main competition [where it earned a historical win taking home four awards for Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay & Best Actress], the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival [where it won the FIPRESCI Award], the main slate of the New York Film Festival and the Busan International Film Festival. Beginning was just selected as Georgia’s submission for Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards in 2022.
The Asia Pacific Screen Academy expresses its respect for and acknowledgement of the South East Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners of country, including the custodial communities on whose land works are created and celebrated by the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. We acknowledge the continuing connection to land, waters and communities. We also pay our respects to Elders, past and present. We recognise the integral role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and First Nations peoples continue to play in storytelling and celebration spaces.
