George SIKHARULIDZE

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George Sikharulidze was born and raised in Tbilisi, Georgia just before the collapse of the Soviet Union. At 18, he moved to the United States to pursue his studies in New York. He received a B.S. in Media Studies from New York University and an M.F.A. in Film Directing from Columbia university, where he also studied film theory and history under Richard Peña.
His short films, set in Georgia and United States, include The Fish that Drowned (2014), which premiered at the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival, Red Apples (2016) and most recently A New Year (2018) which were both selected at TIFF and other festivals, winning multiple awards including an Oscar-qualifying Best Film Award and Fatherland, currently in post-production. He is the co-editor of a short film Submarine, which was selected at the 69th Cannes Film Festival (Cinéfondation). Apart from writing and directing, George has taught filmmaking at Hunter College, Northwestern and Columbia Universities. Currently, he is developing his first feature Panopticon, which explores adolescent sexuality and Christian fundamentalism in the post-Soviet Georgia.

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