Russian Director Georgiy Daneliya Dies at 88

His films won awards at Berlin, Venice and Karlovy Vary film festivals.

Georgiy Daneliya, a director of many iconic Soviet and Russian films, died Thursday in Moscow, Russian news agency TASS reported, quoting his family. He was 88.

In February, Daneliya was hospitalized for pneumonia and remained in serious condition. He died of heart failure.

Daneliya was born in Tiflis, Georgia, in 1930, and his family moved to Moscow a year later. He originally was trained as an architect, but subsequently attended the Higher Courses for Film Directors in Moscow.

Daneliya's feature debut, Seryozha, won the Crystal Globe, the main prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, in 1960. He went on to make Ya shagayu po Moskve (I Step Through Moscow), one of the 1960s' most significant Soviet films, which took part in the official selection at the Cannes Film Festival in 1964.

Daneliya's other notable films include Tridtsat tri (Thirty Three), Mimino, Afonya and Osenni marafon (Autumn Marathon), which collected awards at the Berlin, San Sebastian and Venice film festivals in 1979 and 1980.

Daneliya's final film was 2012's Ku! Kin-dza-dza, an animated remake of his 1987 movie Kin-dza-dza!