Levan Akin

Levan Akin is a Swedish-Georgian gay filmmaker known for And Then We Danced (2019), which premiered at Cannes and depicted the forbidden romance between two male dancers in the Georgian National Ballet -- a film whose screenings in Georgia were met with violent protests by nationalist groups and which sparked international discussion about LGBTQ+ rights in Georgia and the former Soviet states. His follow-up, Crossing (2024), continued his engagement with LGBTQ+ lives in the Caucasus region, following a retired teacher searching Istanbul for her estranged transgender niece. Akin has spoken about filmmaking as an act of solidarity with queer people in societies where their existence is threatened.