Today, August 25, marks the 85th jubilee of the People's Artist of the USSR, the outstanding film director and scriptwriter Georgi Daneliya.

      According to the TASS agency, Georgy Daneliya is celebrating his birthday at home, with his grandchildren and and great-grandchildren. "There won't be any special anniversary retrospective of my films, they are anyway always broadcasted on TV. I am staying home and not going out tonight", - the film director said.

      Georgy Daneliya was born in Tbilisi in 1930. He started working as a production director at the Mosfilm Studio in 1959. His major early work Walking the Streets of Moscow (1964) became a cultural hallmark of the Khruschev's Thaw.  

      The cinematographer has directed more than 20 films, most of them authored by himself.

      Georgy Daneliya is the winner of the USSR State Award  (for the film Mimino, 1978), a full member of the National Academy of Сinematic Arts and Sciences of Russia, and an honourary citizen of Tbilisi.