Tbilisi Film Fest anniversary edition brings UK focus, Georgian and international filmmakers

A still from British director William Nicholson's 2019 feature 'Hope Gap', part of the Focus Country section of the Tbilisi event. Photo via Tbilisi International Film Festival.

Agenda.ge, 20 Nov 2019 - 18:52, Tbilisi,Georgia

A selection of classic and new Georgian cinema will join focus programme of British filmmakers in addition to works from the rest of the world in an anniversary edition of the Tbilisi International Film Festival launching next week.

Opening with a screening of Blackmail (1929) by the famed Alfred Hitchcock, the festival will carry its spotlight on the British filmmaking over to the Focus Country programme screenings of works by directors Ken Loach, Mark Jenkin, Joanna Hogg and William Nicholson.

Loach's directorial work will be highlighted through Sorry We Missed You, a look at a family under stress of post-crisis economy and employment, while Bait will show Jenkin's look at a community of a British fishing village through an influx of tourists, praised as "one of the defining British films of the decade" by The Guardian.

Hogg's portrayal of a shy cinema student getting involved in an intense relationship with an older man in the 1980s will come through The Souvenir, with Hope Gap, a view of a family in distress from Nicholson completing the programme.

In the other focus section, the festival will host screenings of five works by Mexican director Carlos Reygadas, a recipient of three Cannes Film Festival prizes in addition to nominations for the European Film Awards and other highly regarded honours.

In addition to presenting five of his award-winning works including Silent Light (2007) and Japón (2002) at the event, organisers will distinguish Reygadas with their prize for his contribution to cinema, an award that will also go to Georgian screenwriters and director Irakli Kvirikadze.

'Comets' by Tamar Shavgulidze, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and selected for Asia Pacific Screen Awards, will be part of the festival programme:

A wide range of feature, short and documentary films by local filmmakers will be screened in three relevant programmes, from Tamar Shavgulidze's Asia Pacific Screen Awards-nominated Comets to Negative Numbers Uta Beria, which premiered at the Arras Film Festival in France this month.

A special screening bringing Georgia's pioneering female director Nutsa Gogoberidze, Soviet-era filmmaker Mikheil Kobakhidze and the latest feature by Nino Kirtadze to the big screen will also be part of the anniversary festival.

In a wider lens on films from across the world, over 20 works will be seen by audiences in European Forum, Horizons and Americas programmes, with another look at British cinema coming through the retrospective Apollo section.

Organisers of the festival are expected to publish their full programme in the run-up to the launch on December 1, with the event set to run through December 8 at Amirani Cinema on 36, Kostava Street in Tbilisi.