Panopticon, a feature length screenplay written by George Sikharulidze '17, has been selected for the TorinoFilmLab's 2019 ScriptLab, an initiative focused on the development of fiction feature film scripts in early development stage. Participants get an opportunity to develop their screenplays over three week-long workshop residencies and two online sessions with collaboration and guidance from international filmmakers, script consultants and story editors. With this screenplay, Sikharulidze was also selected to participate in Cannes Film Festival's Cinéfondation residency earlier this year.
In Panopticon, a teenager struggles to reconcile his relationship to God with his awakening sexuality when his father decides to become a monk and retreats into the mountains of post-Soviet Georgia.
Sikharulidze is from Tbilisi, Georgia. He moved to the United States at the age of 18 to study at New York University. Earning a B.S. in Media Studies, he graduated summa cum laude and went on to earn his MFA from Columbia. When not directing, Sikharulidze has taught filmmaking at both Northwestern and Columbia, where he was nominated for the Presidential Award for Outstanding teaching.