Hundreds of youth embrace Giffoni Film Festival in Tbilisi

One of the largest children’s film festivals in Europe has arrived in Georgia for the first time, bringing with it 500 young participants over four days who will experience all aspects of modern cinematography.

The Giffoni International Film Festival opened today at the National Youth and Children’s Palace in capital Tbilisi, giving children from Georgia, Italy, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Croatia the chance to meet and learn from industry insiders.

For the next three days the participants, aged 13-18, will watch and analyse films, learn about the filmmaking process by award winning directors, meet actors, judge films and award prizes and engage in masterclasses that test their confidence and teach them new skills.

From Georgia some of the youth who signed up to the event included locals from the Pankisi Gorge as well as from Nikozi and Ergneti villages near the Administrative Boundary Line and Russian-occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region.

The youth festival aims to engage participants in reviews and discussions on culture and art. Photo from Giffoni Georgia/Flickr.

Organisers of the Georgian festival said the four-day occasion would engage the participants in film screenings and discussions in English, a range of interactive workshops for video games, painting and animation, and other activities featuring the Sukhishvilebi National Ballet company and the Georgian State Pantomime Theatre.

Well-known Georgian artists and public speakers including author Rati Amaghlobeli and philologist Levan Berdzenishvili will address the youth, while Academy Award-nominated film directors Zaza Urushadze and Giorgi Ovashvili will be among the event’s special guests.

In May it was announced Georgia had earned the right to host a local version of the Giffoni Film Festival, which is regarded internationally as one of Europe’s most prestigious film festivals for children.

Georgia obtained the right to hold the Festival without paying a membership fee; a privilege not granted to other states in the Caucasus.

The international event involves participants aged 13 to 18. Photo from Giffoni Georgia/Flickr.

In July the event was held for the 45th time in the small town of Giffoni Valle Piana in southern Italy. Tbilisi is hosting its own version from October 16-19. 

The festival is held annually in Italy but in recent years some countries have been grated the rights to host their own version of the festival as a way to engage more children in filmmaking and the film industry.

Over the years Giffoni International Film Festival events have been attended around the world by cinema celebrities including actors Meryl Streep, Roman Polanski and Eddie Redmayne, who won his first Oscar this year for his portrayal of physicist Stephen Hawking in the biographical movie The Theory of Everything.

The Georgian festival edition was organised by the Georgian National Film Centre and supported by the Georgian Ministry of Culture and Monuments Protection and Tbilisi Municipality City Council.

The Giffoni International Film Festival in Tbilisi will conclude on October 19.