CineDOC-Tbilisi screenings to bring distinguished documentaries to remote audiences

A still from 'Sunless Shadows' by director Mehrdad Oskouei, nominated for an Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival prize and selected for this year's CineDOC-Tbilisi programme. Photo via IMDB.

Agenda.ge, 12 Aug 2021 - 16:18, Tbilisi,Georgia

A freshly designed series of screenings will bring some of the most engaging new documentaries to viewers in this year's CineDOC-Tbilisi festival, launching this Sunday and running throughout the next month.

Works from documentary filmmakers will be screened in digital spaces in a daily programme, with the festival headlined by the Best of CineDOC-Tbilisi selection in cooperation with the Georgian Public Broadcaster, DAFilms and Adjara TV channel.

Among the works selected for the programme and set to go on the screen are Sundance Film Festival prize-winning Honeyland by Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska, Hot Docs Festival Honourable Mention recipient Sunny from Keti Machavariani, and Reetta Huhtanen's Gods of Molenbeek, distinguished with wins and nominations at festivals including ZagrebDox and Tampere Film Festival.

The Best of CineDOC-Tbilisi section will be screened on workdays, while viewers will be invited to spend their weekends visiting the festival website for finding 10 recent works from the customary Focus Caucasus programme, dedicated to exploring people and societies of the region.

The section will have three jury teams assessing submissions, with Alex Szalat, the Head of the Doc’s up Fund association, producer Heleen Gerritsen and Visions du Reel festival Head of Industry Madeline Robert picked for the panel.

There will also be a Special Screenings section, also set for an online run, while the CineDOC-Young selection will offer documentaries for a younger audience.

Beside screening sections, the organisers will invite directors working on documentary projects to meet industry professionals in the Film Mentoring Programme, the principal industry-oriented part of this year's edition.

It will involve webinars, discussions and group work for the involved, with an international jury also having awards to present to three winning projects of the New Talents Caucasus platform.

The programme involves five international mentors - filmmakers Sergey Dvortsevoy and Audrius Stonys, editor Phil Jandaly, documentary consultant and tutor Gitte Hansen and Balticum Film and TV Festival co-founder Tue Steen Muller will be the team sharing their experience with the up-and-coming creatives.

This year's edition of the CineDOC-Tbilisi festival is set to run through September 15.