Filmmakers invited to submit works for inaugural Kutaisi International Short Film Festival
The latest film fest in Georgia is launched with a goal of contributing to a decentralisation of cinema scene, which usually is centred around capital Tbilisi. Photo via Kutaisi International Short Film Festival.
Tweet 
Share
Filmmakers from across the world are invited to submit their works for the first edition of the Kutaisi International Short Film Festival, a celebration of short-form cinema in Georgia's west that aims to claim a place on the international calendar.
Scheduled for the maiden edition in November this year, the festival is launched with two programmes offering creatives an opportunity to showcase their talent.
Submissions with a runtime between 10-30 minutes will compete in the main competition, with 1-5-minute shorts to be picked in the super short contest.
As a historic city of moving pictures, Kutaisi regains cinematic position in the industry offering a wide variety of programmes including retrospectives of Georgian and international classics plus contemporary International Short Film Competition" - festival organisers
Works from between 2018-2020 are being accepted by festival team, with a regular deadline of August 20 and a late deadline of September 20.
Four awards will be handed out to winners, with Best Film and Most Outstanding Director prizes for the main programme, the award for the super shorts and a special prize from a film critics jury.
While due to COVID-19 limitations the first edition of the festival will not be able to host filmmakers from abroad, organisers have prepared master classes and workshops for participants.
The festival is founded with the aim of decentralising the cinema scene in Georgia, which is usually centred around capital Tbilisi.
Hundreds of primary school students in Georgia are learning how to conceive and produce works of cinema art through a European Union-funded project involving remote classes.
Cinema professionals are in the central Georgian villages and towns adjacent to the occupation line, to screen films and talk the art form with kids studying in local schools.
Animation film enthusiasts will have to wait until 2021 to join the 10th anniversary edition of the International Animation Film Festival Nikozi in central Georgia, with organisers announcing a cancellation of the event due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.
Award-winning film director Salomé Jashi will present two works as part of the ongoing programme of Berlin's Arsenal Institute for Film and Video Art next month, when the filmmaker introduces her documentary Bakhmaro and Bread Day by director Sergei Dvortsevoy to viewers at the venue.
The maiden edition of Kutaisi International Short Film Festival, the latest cinema event launched in Georgia to bring celebration of the media and art form to audiences beyond capital Tbilisi, has been delayed to next year with the resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic in mind.
The first edition of the Kutaisi International Short Film Festival in Georgia's west will run in May with a programme involving 15 works in the main competition plus other sections.
French filmmaker Vincent Launay-Franceschini received the principal award of the Kutaisi International Short Film Festival for his O ma!, while Irine Jordania earned the best director prize for 12 K. Marx Street, as the first edition of the festival handed out its honours last week.