Third annual CineDOC film festival launches in Tbilisi

Almost 40 documentaries from around the world are being welcomed at the third annual CineDOC – an international documentary film festival being held in Tbilisi.

From October 20-25 local and international guests will have the chance to see a selection of Georgian and foreign documentary films, chosen by event organisers from hundreds of entries.

Festival organisers said the films selected for this year’s event were diverse and would entertain people of all interests.

"The audience has the chance to view a variety of documentary films with a unique directing vision, an original visual style, sympathetic protagonists and powerful stories.”

Thirty-nine films from the Caucasus, Europe and Middle East will take part in the festival and compete in six categories; International Competition, Focus Caucasus, Women in Frame, Special Screenings and CineDOC Young and Guest Country-Israel.

The film screenings will be followed by Q&A sessions and debates with invited filmmakers, master classes with renowned film professionals and open sessions with international guests.

The Festival’s student jury was selected by organisers from Georgian universities. Photo from CineDOC Tbilisi/Facebook.

The foreign productions by filmmakers from Poland, Slovakia, The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and more, will participate in the International Competition, while films on the subject of the Caucasus will be grouped under the Focus Caucasus section.

The event will also include a special CineDOC Young Section for films about young protagonists living in different corners of the world to films on ecology, democracy, human rights and gender issues, while another category will present documentary films from this year’s guest country Israel.

The fifth category – Women in Frame – was a new category this year after the previous two festivals saw female filmmakers win top awards. Event organisers said this section would highlight the way women’s issues were presented in creative documentary films.

"Georgia is one of the few countries in Europe in which the most successful documentary filmmakers are women,” said organisers on the event’s official webpage.

The final section of the Tbilisi 2015 CineDOC will feature five productions in the Special Screenings category.

All of the participating films will compete for category awards, which will be announced at special ceremonies on October 24 and 25. Awards up for grabs include the Audience Award and the Festival Favourite award, which will be chosen by a student jury. The student jury was selected from applications received from "almost all universities in Tbilisi”, CineDOC organisers said.

CineDOC Tbilisi was established as the first international documentary film festival in 2013 and is supported by a group of local and international organisations including Georgia’s Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection, Tbilisi City Hall and the Georgian National Film Centre.

The third CineDOC Tbilisi will take place from October 21-25 at the Rustaveli and Amirani cinemas, located in central Tbilisi.

The full program for the Festival can be viewed here.

See the trailer for the 2015 CineDOC Tbilisi festival below: