Georgian Cinema in Crisis: Ana Urushadze Returns to Sarajevo as Filmmakers Boyott State Funding
Georgian director Ana Urushadze's second feature Supporting Role premiered in competition at the Sarajevo Film Festival on 19 August 2026, while back home the country's film industry remains locked in a boycott of its own state funding agency over censorship (The Hollywood Reporter).
Urushadze did not mince words about the situation. She described Georgian cinema as being "in a dead-end situation," speaking to The Hollywood Reporter at Sarajevo. Directors, producers, writers and performers have been boycotting the Georgian National Film Centre — the state body that funds domestic film production — over what they call government interference, censorship and intimidation (Screen Daily). The campaign, titled "Georgian cinema is in danger," began with three weeks of protests before filmmakers formally announced the boycott on 21 August 2023 (OC-Media). Georgia's leading filmmakers say government measures are intended to sanitise the content of the films the country produces (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty).
Against that backdrop, Supporting Role arrives as a film about an industry in flux. Set in Tbilisi, it follows Niaz Ninua, a fading Georgian film star played by Dato Bakhtadze, who returns to acting and discovers an industry that has left him behind (The Hollywood Reporter). The young female director who casts him, Aza — played by Elene Maisuradze — is making her debut feature, and the collision between the two generations drives the story.
Urushadze said the film grew out of a real encounter. While casting the lead for her debut feature, an older actor was offended that she was young and a beginner. That friction became the seed for Supporting Role (The Hollywood Reporter). She described the protagonist's journey as being about "letting go of the script that others gave you."
The film has already travelled. It won a prize at the International Film Festival Rotterdam earlier in 2026, with Variety describing it as a Rotterdam prizewinner now playing in competition at Sarajevo (Variety; The Hollywood Reporter). The Sarajevo competition jury was led by Oscar nominee Emily Watson (The Hollywood Reporter).
For Urushadze, Sarajevo is familiar ground. Her debut, Scary Mother, won the Heart of Sarajevo award at the 23rd edition of the festival — nine years before Supporting Role premiered there (Sarajevo Film Festival; The Hollywood Reporter). The festival described the new film as "an odyssey about a famous actor whose audition" becomes "a reflective meditation" (Sarajevo Film Festival).
The production itself spans borders. Supporting Role was produced by Zazafilms, Allfilm, Enkeny Films, Zeyno Film, Cinetrain and Melograno Films — a co-production chain stretching from Georgia through Estonia and beyond (The Hollywood Reporter; Allfilm).
What gives the Sarajevo premiere its edge is the collision between the film's themes and the reality waiting at home. A story about a man discovering his industry has moved on without him, made by a director who says that industry is stuck — and whose colleagues are refusing to work with the state that funds it.
