Tbilisi int’l film festival goes online amid coronavirus
Kicking off on November 30 Tbilisi International Film Festival will close on December 20. Photo: TIFF/Facebook
Tweet 
Share
Tbilisi International Film Festival (TIFF), which is an annual event offering films, masterclasses and other industrial events for cinema-lovers, will be held online this year amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Kicking off on November 30, TIFF will show 20 new feature films which will be available on a Festival Scoop platform for free.
A film by Agnieszka Holland Charlatan is inspired by the true story of herbalist Jan Mikolasek, who dedicated his life to caring for the sick in spite of the immense obstacles he faced in his private and public life:
Apart from the films which will be shown between December 14-20 the festival offers a variety of master classes, workshops and panel discussions via Zoom for those interested in cinematography.
Director of the festival Gaga Chkheidze says the cinema-goers usually gather at Amirani cinema in Tbilisi and spend the entire week watching films.
However, he said despite being held virtually this year, Tbilisi International Film Festival is offering an interesting program worth following.
The 2020 edition of Tbilisi Photo Festival will go ahead in face-to-face format following the lockdown, with its central event to run next month in a former Soviet printing house-turned hotel in the downtown.
A surge of COVID-19 cases in Georgia's Black Sea province of Adjara this week has forced organisers of the Batumi International Arthouse Film Festival to postpone the event to next month, only a few days after they announced their full programmes.
Dea Kulumbegashvili's Toronto- and San Sebastian Film Festival-winning feature Beginning will compete with Uta Beria's Georgian-French-Italian co-production drama Negative Numbers and Odesa International Film Festival prize nominee Ursus by Otar Shamatava for the selection of Georgia's next Academy Award bid.
Theatre troupes from different parts of Georgia will converge to locations in the country's west to celebrate their sixth edition of the Regional Theatres Festival in a post-lockdown environment starting this week.
Dea Kulumbegashvili's award-winning feature Beginning will open the inaugural Svaneti International Film Festival in Georgia's picturesque mountainous northern province tomorrow, with organisers selecting 20 films for the maiden event's programme.