Levan Akin (born 14 December 1979) is a Swedish

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

and

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

, best known for his film ''

And Then We Danced ''And Then We Danced'' ( ka, და ჩვენ ვიცეკვეთ, ) is a 2019 drama film directed by Levan Akin. It was premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival where it received a fifteen-minute st ...

'', that received critical acclaim and won the 2019

Guldbagge Award for Best Film The Guldbagge for Best Film is a Swedish film award presented annually by the Swedish Film Institute (SFI) as part of the Guldbagge Awards (Swedish: "Guldbaggen") to the best Swedish motion picture of the year. Winners and nominees Each Guldb ...

Biography

Levan Akin was born and raised in

Tumba, Sweden Tumba is a bimunicipal urban areas of Sweden, locality and the seat of Botkyrka Municipality in Stockholm County, Sweden with 37,852 inhabitants in 2010. A part of its statistical Urban areas in Sweden, urban area, called Rönninge, is in Salem Mun ...

. His parents, of Georgian origin, had moved to Sweden in the 1960s, when Georgia was one of the republics of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. Akin returns to Georgia every year with his sister for the summer holidays. There he consolidates his knowledge of Georgian culture and the practice of the

Georgian language Georgian (, ) is the most widely spoken Kartvelian language, Kartvelian language family. It is the official language of Georgia (country), Georgia and the native or primary language of 88% of its population. It also serves as the literary langu ...

. He is openly gay.

Career

Akin started out as an assistant director in film productions, mainly at

Sveriges Television Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television aktiebolag, Stock Company"), shortened to SVT (), is the Sweden, Swedish national public broadcasting, public television broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksd ...

. He worked at Studio 24 for the production of ''

You, the Living ''You, the Living'' () is a 2007 Cinema of Sweden, Swedish Black comedy, black Comedy drama, comedy-drama film written and directed by Roy Andersson. The film is an exploration of the "grandeur of existence", centered on the lives of a group of ind ...

'' (''Du Levande'') by

Roy Andersson Roy Arne Lennart Andersson (born 31 March 1943) is a Swedes, Swedish film director, best known for his distinctive style of absurdism, absurdist humor and Melancholia, melancholic depictions of human life. His personal style is characterized by ...

(2007). In 2008, he won two awards at the

Hamburg Film Festival FILMFEST HAMBURG is an international film festival in Hamburg, the third-largest of its kind in Germany (after Berlin and Munich). It shows national and international feature and documentary films in eleven sections. The range of the program stret ...

alongside film designer and producer Erika Stark for the short film ''De sista sakerna'' (2008). Levan Akin then directed series such as ''Second Avenue'' (''Andra Avenyn'', 2008–2010), ''Livet i Fagervik'' (2009), ''Anno 1790'' (2011) and ''Real Humans'' (''Äkta människor'', 2012) for the television channel Sveriges Television. In autumn 2011, his first feature film ''Katinkas kalas'', premiered at the

Stockholm International Film Festival The Stockholm International Film Festival () is an annual film festival held in Stockholm, Sweden. It was launched in 1990 and has been held every year since then during the second half of November, and focuses on emerging and early career fil ...

. The scenario was based on the inner tensions of a group of young people celebrating a birthday on a summer night. Three of the cast, mostly not known to the wider public, received nominations for the L'Oréal Paris Rising Star award, and Yohanna Idha was nominated for 2013 Guldbagge Award as Best Supporting Actress. In 2019, Akin's second film ''

'' was released to critical acclaim. It was premiered in the

Directors' Fortnight The Directors' Fortnight (, formerly ) is an independent section held in parallel to the Cannes Film Festival. It was started in 1969 by the French Directors Guild after the events of May 1968 resulted in cancellation of the Cannes festival as a ...

section at the

2019 Cannes Film Festival The 72nd annual Cannes Film Festival took place from 14 to 25 May 2019. Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu served as jury president for the main competition. South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho won the , the festival's top prize, fo ...

where it received a fifteen-minute

standing ovation A standing ovation is a form of applause where members of a seated audience stand up while applauding, often after extraordinary performances of particularly high acclaim. Standing ovations are considered to be a special honor. Often they are ...

. Set in Georgia, the film follows Merab, a student from a Georgian traditional dance school who falls in love with his male rival. The Georgian Orthodox Church officially expressed its disapproval of the promotion and screening of the film, and the release of the film in November 2019 caused riots in

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი, ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...

and

Batumi Batumi (; ka, ბათუმი ), historically Batum or Batoum, is the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), second-largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, located on the coast ...

. In June 2020, Akin was selected as a member of the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., with the stated goal of adva ...

. In 2024, Akin's third film '' Crossing'' had its world premiere at the

74th Berlin International Film Festival The 74th annual Berlin International Film Festival, usually called the Berlinale, took place between 15 and 25 February 2024 in Berlin, Germany. Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong'o was named the Jury President for the main competition. This ye ...

Filmography

TV series * 2007: ''Labyrint mobisodes'' * 2008–2010: ''Second Avenue'' (''Andra Avenyn'') (10 episodes) * 2009: ''Livet i Fagervik'' (3 episodes) * 2011: ''Anno 1790'' (3 episodes) * 2012: ''Real Humans'' (''Äkta människor'') (20 episodes) * 2022-2024: ''Interview with the Vampire'' (6 episodes) Short film * 2008: ''De sista sakerna'' Feature film * 2011: ''Katinkas kalas'' * 2015: '' The Circle * 2019: ''

'' * 2024: '' Crossing''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Akin, Levan 1979 births Living people Swedish film directors 21st-century Swedish screenwriters Swedish television directors Swedish television writers Best Screenplay Guldbagge Award winners People from Tumba, Sweden Swedish people of Georgian descent Swedish male screenwriters LGBTQ film directors