Duruji Award Winners Revealed

Tbilisi Event Hall hosted the 8th Duruji Theatre Award ceremony on October 24th. The winners were named in five nominations following a two-month evaluation by the five member jury of the nominated plays.

This year’s awards were granted in the following nominations:

Best Modern Georgian Playwright – Paata Tsikolia and Otar Katamadze;

Best Actress – Marina Kakhiani;

Best Actor – Vano Iantbelidze;

Best Production Work – Levan Tsuladze;

Best Young Director – Nikoloz Sabashvili. The latter was given a special prize of GEL 10,000 from the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia to stage a play for the 2016-2017 season.

Best Modern Georgian Playwright – Paata Tsikolia, who told Georgia Today: “I honestly didn’t expect to win. In total, three plays were presented. One of them I hadn’t even read so I could only guess how the competition would be. Unlike Otar, this was a debut for me and one of the reasons I had low expectations. But as you see, we won!”

“Duruji is the appreciation and recognition of labor and energy invested during the seasons and knitted in the work of art by the artists,” – said Lasha Papashvili, the Prize founder and General Director of Redix Group.

Duruji Prize Award has been held annually since 2008 on the initiative of charity organization “Tsiskari” and “Redix Group” to encourage Georgian directors, actors, playwrights and set designers and to promote and advance Georgian theatre.