Melbourne animation fest to bring spotlight to Georgian filmmakers’ acclaimed shorts

From a granny sewing an endless piece of cloth to a girl discovering a lighthouse in a dark forest, stories in animation form by Georgian filmmakers will come to the Melbourne International Animation Festival this Sunday.

The Australian event will dedicate a screening date in its programme, under the title Window on Georgian Animation, to seven short works produced between 2013-2018.

The Pocket Man from Ana Chubinidze, a tale of friendship through a “simple and touching story” (Montreal International Children’s Film Festival) will bring the director’s acclaimed film to viewers at the Treasury Theatre.

Placing two improbably different protagonists in the plot, Chubinidze shows a chance encounter turning into a close relationship between them, with a “loving humour” emerging from the script.

From Natia Nikolashvili, another female filmmaker featured in the Sunday programme, will come Li.le, a 2017 animation following the principal character through a dark and cold forest as she followers her “missing reflection”.

[The reflection] guides her into the huge lighthouse [from which] Lile with her ‘other self’ finds the way to illuminate over the forest and bring a new life to it,” a summary for the film says.

Dato Kiknavelidze, director of Palm Springs International Animation Festival award-winning Geno, will be represented at the screening with his short Horizon, bearing symbolism of a “nation that has long sought — and fought for — simple freedom.”

Granny by Sandro Katamashvili, who has worked on a range of Georgian-produced animated works with other directors, is also part of the Melbourne festival’s Georgian focus. The slow-paced scenes of the film complement the action of the protagonist working to create an “endless piece of cloth”.

Director Ana Chubinidze casts two improbably different protagonists in her acclaimed short ‘The Pocket Man’. 

“Unbelievable tales” created in the mind of a five-year-old girl are the main subject of Fisherman And The Girl, an Annecy International Animation Film Festival-screened short by Mamuka Tkeshelashvili.

[The film presents a] story about a five-year-old girl and her fisherman father and the parallel lives they lead while he goes fishing in the sea and she is busy at home” — Annecy Festival

Director Petre Tomadze’s A Cup Of Tea In The Rainy Weather, with its runtime of just two minutes, and the filmmaker’s longer work Goderdzi will round off the Georgian selection for the festival, which is set to run between July 13-21.