Biography

Nana Ekvtimishvili (Georgian: ნანა ექვთიმიშვილი; born 9. July 1978 in Tbilisi, Georgia) is a Georgian writer and director. She studied philosophy at the Ivane Javakhishvili State University of Tbilisi. She studied screenwriting and dramaturgy at the Academy of Film and Television (HFF) in Potsdam-Babelsberg. Her stories were first published in 1999 in the Georgian literary magazine Arili in Georgia.

After writing prose and screenplays, in 2011 she directed the short film Deda / Waiting for Mum. In 2012, with Simon Groß, she completed her first feature film, Grdzeli Nateli Dgheebi (Georgian: გრძელი ნათელი დღეები, international title: In Bloom).

In Bloom premiered at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival in 2013 and won the award of the International Confederation of Art Cinema - the CICAE Award. It also won numerous awards at other international film festivals, including in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Paris, Los Angeles and Sarajevo, and is an Oscar entry for 2014 for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film from Georgia.

In 2013 Ekvtimishvili, with Simon Gross, was chosen among the ten most promising European directors from Varietyʼs Ten Directors to Watch at the 48th Karlovy Vary Film Festival.

At the Berlin International Film Festival in 2013, In Bloom was referred to as the birth of the new Georgian wave. In Hong Kong, the film was named as the spring of Georgian cinema. The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) has called the film a sign of the rebirth of Georgian film.

In 2015 Ekvtimishvili's first novel, "The Pear Field", was published by Bakur Sulakauri Publishing in Georgia. In 2018 "The Pear Field" was published in a German translation by Suhrkamp Publishing, Germany, as "Das Birnenfeld". In 2020 "The Pear Field" was published in English translation by Peirene, UK.