Georgian Oscars Entry ‘Panopticon’ Looks at Modern Surveillance, Censorship | Video

Surveillance can take on many forms, and they’re only getting more numerous. Governments, religions and social media can all lead to the feeling — or the reality — that we’re being watched, with significant consequences.

This idea lies at the center of George Sikharulidze’s feature debut, “Panopticon,” a coming-of-age tale about a boy who becomes both surveillant and surveilled in post-Soviet Georgia as he reckons with religious fundamentalism and nationalism. The Georgian-American filmmaker wanted to explore challenges he faced in his own upbringing while also telling a contemporary tale — one that addresses the sexual awakenings and rise of far-right movements among contemporary young men. The film was selected as Georgia’s entry for Best International Feature at the 2026 Academy Awards.

“After so many conversations between myself and my nephew, who was 18, his friends and young people in general, I realized I really need to set it in today’s time,” Sikharulidze told TheWrap’s Joe McGovern during a conversation that was part of TheWrap’s Screening Series. “Also, as I was writing, there were things developing in the culture that were sort of making their way into the story, and that’s usually kind of how I try to work, is to be sort of a sponge and be reactive and observant of what’s going on around me so that even if the story’s catalyst is a long time ago, the work has to feel relevant now.”

Sikharulidze baked the theme of surveillance into the film’s title, with “Panopticon” referencing a structure of prison where a guard tower lies in the center of a circle of cells. This architectural concept leaves prisoners with the belief that they’re being observed at all times. Sikharulidze wanted to use this structure (and Michel Foucault’s general theory of Panopticism) as an inroads to discuss the feeling of surveillance permeating modern society, especially for younger individuals.

“The crucial part is it’s sort of like there’s a power that can exercise this power without being present,” he said. “For me, that is, in a way, a definition about how religion works.”

“Panopticon” follows an 18-year-old boy whose father leaves to become a monk in an Orthodox Christian monastery, leaving his son with a parting thought: that God is all-seeing and all-knowing. The central character Sandro is played by Data Chachua, a new young actor Sikharulidze called “tireless.”

“He’s wonderful. He was very devoted to the process. I saw a photograph of him and I wanted to kind of call him back, and then we did some scenes, and fairly quickly I knew he was the one,” Sikharudlidze said. “Then it just sort of became a question of meeting, watching films together with all the young actors who are all, in my book they’re just fantastic, and most of them are acting for the first time.”

It was during these screenings that another side of Sikharulidze came out for his cast: the professorial side. The writer/director has taught filmmaking and screenwriting at NYU, Columbia and, now, Notre Dame, relaying his own experience with the craft to his students. As he videoed into TheWrap’s virtual screening, Sikharulidze sat with posters of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Pyscho,” Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days” and Jim Jarmusch’s “Down by Law” in the background. While working on “Panopticon,” he brought the classroom to his young cast by hosting a series of screenings.

“We would sort of discuss and analyze scenes and performance and what to do or not to do in front of the camera, because they’re all pretty green,” he said. “I mean, Data has performed in a TV series when he was a kid or teen, but this was really his first big film like that, and so we would do these lectures almost and we would watch films. Also in my private conversations with him, it became very evident to me quickly that he’s almost lived the same life as me in terms of our relationships to our fathers and how we were growing up, and I think he really was able to tap into that.”

Sikharulidze said his selection as Georgia’s representative at the Academy Awards comes at a difficult time for the country. Filmmakers and artists across the country have begun boycotting Georgia’s official cultural body, The Georgian National Film Centre, due to governmental interference and censorship. It’s a position Sikharulidze doesn’t take lightly.

“Really, right now, as I speak here with you, there are actors, students, teachers and artists who are in prison right now because of protesting the governing party and their attempt to seize more control over everything, including the arts,” Sikharulidze said. “For me, in that environment, in that context, representing the film from Georgia, it’s sort of like it carries a symbolic weight. I think this is a moment to talk about it, talk about what’s happening, and I stand in solidarity with people who are on the ground protesting to this day. I stand in solidarity also with the people who are in prison right now for protesting for, you know, not succumbing to this seizing the control over practically every aspect of life.

“I was glad about the fact that we were selected,” he continued. “At the same time, I think it’s also worth noting that so many filmmakers didn’t submit their film for consideration because they were in protest. So it’s kind of bittersweet with the given situation to be in this spot, but I think it’s also a responsible position, and that’s why I’m talking about this.”

Watch the full interview here.

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