Georgian documentarian Salome Jashi won the Berlin Art Prize in the category Cinema and Media Art. The award is presented annually on behalf of the Berlin Senate.

The award ceremony will be held in Berlin on March 18 this year. Sarah Wedl-Wilson, the secretary of the Department of Culture of the Berlin Senate, and Jeanine Meerapfel, the president of the Art Academy, will present the prize to Salome Jashi and the other five category winners.

Salome Jashi's documentary Taming the Garden released in 2021 and focusing on the relocation of giant trees to the Bidzina Ivanishvili dendrological park, has been repeatedly criticized by Georgian authorities. In 2023, the then chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream and current Prime Minister of the country, Irakli Kobakhidze, called the film shameful and criticized the National Center of Cinematography for financing it. Earlier, in April 2022, screenings of The Taming of the Garden were canceled in Tbilisi by decision of the Georgian Film Academy. According to the director, the cancellation was due to the film's content.

Salome Jashi has also directed the documentaries A Crypto Rush Aftermath (2023), THE DAZZLING LIGHT OF SUNSET (2016), Bakhmaro (2011), The Leader is Always Right (2010), and Speechless (2009). She is the chairwoman of the Association of Georgian Documentary Cinema Doka and a member of the Council of Cinematographers of the Georgian Film Institute.

Georgian News
Georgian News
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