Georgia: The Georgian Ministry of Culture and Sports honors Bondo Shoshitaishvili’s memory and his significant contribution to developing Georgian animation film art. The brilliant director of animation cinema would have turned 85 on September 15, 2024.
Bondo Shoshitaishvili was a multi-talented artist – director, painter, animator and screenwriter.
In 1959, he graduated from Tbilisi’s Moses Toidze Art School with the specialty of painter-decorator, and in 1961, he graduated from K. Two-year courses of artists-animators with “Soyuzcartoon” were held in Moscow (VGIC branch). In 1973-78, he studied film science at the Faculty of Arts of Tbilisi State University.
In 1961-76, the film studio “Georgian Film” worked to unify cartoon films, first as a painter, then as a painter-animator. Animations of cartoon films: “Half Chicken” (1962), “Hand Master – Sportsman” (1962), “Hero” (1963), “Korbuda” (1963), “Narcissist” (1964), “Brave Son” (1965), “Bombora” (1968) and others. The producer is a painter of the films: “The Tree” (1973) and “The Gardener” (1975).
Bondo Shoshitaishvili has been an animation director since 1976. He has been the director of the animation studio Orbi since 1991 and, since 1996, the artistic director of the same studio.
The director made animated films full of kindness and values: “Kvasanaki” (i. With Samsonadze, 1976), “Katsunebi” (1978), “Mamlakintsa” (1979), “Talent” (1981), “Slapa” (1982), “Tusaghi” (1984), “Being or… Is it a drink? ” (1985 – Union Film Festival Jury Prize, 1986), “Fakir” (1986), “Profile and Salary” (1988), “Alikuri” (1989 – Russian Cinematographers Highest Prize “Nika”, 1991), “Idarde Teteo” (1990), “Witness” (1991), “Golden Hands” (1992), “Paradox” (1999), “Apple of Cracks” (2002) and others. Bondo Shoshitaishvili has also become the author of most of his films.
He taught at Tbilisi Art Academy, where he led the painter-animator workshop from 1984 to 93. Since 2006, he has been a teacher at Tbilisi Theater and Film State University, where he taught a group of directors and artist-animators.
Bondo Shoshitaishvili was an honorary member of the Creative Union of Cinematographers of Georgia (1974-2022) and the Russian Film Academy (2002-2022). In 1999, he became a Cavalier of the Order of Honor for his significant personal contribution to the development of Georgian cartoon art and for his fruitful creative and pedagogical achievement.
In 2016, Georgian first channel, “Fragments of the Era,” filmed a documentary on Bondo Shoshitaishvili.
