BBC: “Georgia seeks to put itself on movie map”

Georgia’s natural and urban locations, favourable production expenses and gender equality on cinema scene are helping the country promote itself as a filming destination, observes a new article from the BBC.

Submitted to BBC Monitoring — a section for media analysis — the feature centres around recent moves by state film institutions to pitch Georgia to filmmakers and producers from around the world.

While the country still lags behind Croatia and other Eastern European film locations, its proximity to major EU cities, comparatively low prices, and bounty of filming locations are drawing directors from around the world”, David Lobzhanidze notes in the article.

The recent list of productions filmed in Georgia is headlined by Girls of the Sun, French director Eva Husson’s Cannes Film Festival-screened drama.

In other examples, Academy Award-winning Michel Hazanavicius and acclaimed director Mohsen Makhmalbaf are also among film professionals who opted for Georgia as their filming location, notes the story.

The article also quotes filmmaker Rudolph Herzog about incentives for his choosing the South Caucasus state as a filming ground for his Irish-Georgian co-production How to Sell a War.

Herzog and producer Sam Taylor offer their views on advantages of cost-efficiency, security and production values among the reasons, in addition to comments from Film in Georgia state program manager for promoting the country.

Read the full story here: bbc.com