Otar Pertakhia

Screenwriter, playwright

He graduated with honours from the Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film Georgia State University with a degree in screenwriting (Erlom Akhvlediani’s workshop). Participated in the training programme of IFA-SC-South Caucasus Film Development and Screenplay Writing; and a training seminar ‘Contemporary European Film and Film Industry’, within the framework of the AVANTI programme organized by the Swiss Development Agency.

He is the author of numerous high-profile plays for theatre, and scripts for short and feature films.

In 2014, the Azerbaijani feature film Down the River, based on his screenplay, was directed by filmmaker Asif Rustamov.  The world premiere took place in the competition section of the 49th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival ‘East of the West’. The film has received numerous international awards, including: the SEEfest Award for Best Film in the southeast European Film Festival in Los Angeles (the festival is sponsored by the American Film Academy); LET’S CEE Jury Special Award of the Vienna International Film Festival; The National Prize Guild of Professional Cinematographers and The Producers of Azerbaijan.

In 2013 at the International Festival of Playwrights ‘Restoration of the Present’ (Yerevan, Armenia), his play In the Lift was named as a festival discovery and received a highly positive response from critics.

Otar is the writer of the screenplay for the feature film Bridge (2020), a Georgian-Turkish co-production, directed by Erekle Badurashvili, which is produced by the ‘Georgian Film’ studio.