Batumi Arthouse Fest to host screenings, award lifetime cinema honours
'Castle of Dreams' by Iranian director Reza Mirkarimi collected three of the principal awards at the Shanghai International Film Festival. Photo: irimageco.co.
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A celebration of auteur cinema will come to the Black Sea resort city of Batumi next week with the opening of the 2019 Batumi International Arthouse Film Festival.
Independent films from directors including Aleksi Salmenperä, Reza Mirkarimi and Mark Jenkin have been selected to delight festival-goers, with organisers publishing their finalised programmes this week.
In the feature competition, 10 works will vie for the principal award of the festival, with Void by Salmenperä, Bait from Jenkin and Castle of Dreams by Mirkarimi included.
The Grand Prix of the section will be awarded along with prizes for best director, actors and a Special Jury Prize. The international jury panel is comprised of director and screenwriter Aleksandr Mindadze, publicist Tatiana Detlofson, journalist Martin Blaney, actor Carmen Grey and filmmaker Rusudan Glurjidze.
The full feature competition selection is as follows:
- Bait, directed by Mark Jenkin — United Kingdom, 2019
- Bra, Veit Helmer — Germany/Azerbaijan, 2018
- Castle of Dreams, Reza Mirkarimi — Iran, 2019
- End of Seasons, Elmar Imanov — Germany/Azerbaijan/Georgia, 2019
- His Master’s Voice, George Palfi — Canada/Hungary/France/ Sweden/USA, 2018
- La Belle Indifference, Kıvanç Sezer — Turkey, 2019
- Let There Be Light, Marko Skop — Slovak Republic/Czech Republic, 2019
- Sweet End of Day, Jacek Borcuch — Poland, 2019
- Tale of Three Sisters, Emin Alper — Turkey/Germany, 2019
- Void, Aleksi Salmenperä — Finland, 2018
The programme also includes competitive selections for documentary and short works, with eight films in the former including a Georgian premiere of The Harvest by Misho Antadze, For Sama by Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts as well as director Yuriy Shylov’s Projectionist.
These have been picked to be in the section that will award similar prize categories to the feature segment following assessment by jury team of producer Krzysztof Gierat and filmmakers Ghasideh Golmakani, Oles Yanchuk, Karen Avetisyan and Vakhtang Kuntsev-Gabashvili.
The documentary selection is below:
- For Sama, Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts — United Kingdom/United States, 2019
- Forman VS Forman, Helena Trestikova/Jacub Hejna — Czech Republic/France, 2019
- Harvest, Misho Antadze — Georgia, 2019
- Lovemobil, Elke Margarete Lehrenkrauss — Germany, 2019
- Northern Soul, Sean McAlister — United Kingdom, 2018
- Projectionist, Yuriy Shylov — Ukraine/Poland, 2019
- Shooting the Mafia, Kim Longinoto — Ireland, 2019
- When the Persimmons Grew, Hilal Baydarov — Azerbaijan/Austria, 2019
The third part of the in-competition picks, the short films section, sees 25 works including six by Georgian directors. Bad People by Giorgi Tavartkiladze and Blind Love by Buba Gogiberidze are among these, with the full selection available here.
This year’s BIAFF edition will be comprised of the Georgian Panorama, Masters Collection and Special Screenings sections featuring a range of films.
In addition to screenings, the event will honour four film professionals for their contribution to cinema, with American screenwriter and director Paul Schrader, French actor Danis Lavant, director Alexander Mindadze and actor Manuchar Shervashidze receiving Lifetime Achievement Awards.
Organisers will also provide a networking opportunity for industry professionals with their Industrial Platform.
The 2019 edition of BIAFF has been preceded with Biaffiada, a programme of acclaimed films and cinema classics screened in the coastline boulevard of the Black Sea city. Over eight days, locals and tourists saw works by Georgian and foreign directors in evening- and nighttime sessions.
Organisers said they would also take screenings to other locations in the seaside Adjara region after the conclusion of the festival. These locations will include spots in Batumi and Kobuleti as well as the more remote locations in Keda, Shuakhevi and Khulo.
The 2019 BIAFF will run between September 15-22.
Internationally acclaimed films and cinema classics will be screened in the coastline boulevard of Georgia’s Black Sea city of Batumi starting this Friday, in the run-up to the Batumi International Arthouse Film Festival.
Georgian director Misho Antadze’s documentary The Harvest collected the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC)’s Award at the Jeonju International Film Festival in Seoul this week, distinguishing the film about the relationship between nature, technology, and the changing landscape.
Filmmaker Giorgi Tavartkiladze’s short Bad People, presenting a story from the tumultuous 1990s in Georgia, has claimed its second international prize following the film’s premiere last month.
Select works by acclaimed directors will be screened alongside a celebration of Georgian cinema anniversary at this year’s Batumi International Art-house Film Festival in the seaside city next month.
Auteur films by famed cinema names and established contemporary directors will attract audiences to this year’s Batumi International Art-House Film Festival (BIAFF) to Georgia’s Black Sea coast starting this Sunday.
The Slovak-Czech co-production Let There Be Light by filmmaker Marko Skop has been revealed as the winner of the international feature competition of the Batumi Arthouse Film Festival on Georgia's Black Sea coast, with winners also distinguished in documentary, short and other categories.
Batumi Art-House Film Festival, an event that has been held in Georgia's Black Sea city uninterruptedly since 2006, has launched a crowdfunding drive in a bid to raise funds to host this year's edition after the national and regional culture ministries, the Georgian National Film Centre and the Batumi City Hall all declined contributing to its funding.