SOFA European film project to host online Tbilisi workshop

A workshop from School of Film Advancement, a European project supporting national industries and the wider continental cinema scene, will be hosted in its Tbilisi edition remotely for the second time next week due to Covid constraints.

Over five days, the SOFA meeting will bring together filmmakers working on their projects on the one hand, and marketing and financing professionals on the other, to develop related strategies for the selected works-in-progress.

The latest SOFA workshop continues from the three online meetings in 2020, all within the 2020-2021 edition of the project, and has selected 10 participating creatives with nine film projects.

The designed lectures, keynote addresses and individual meetings will enable filmmakers Victoria Aleksanyan (Armenia), Elkjana Gjipali (Albania), Stefanie Gödicke (Germany), Rufat Hasanov (Azerbaijan), Leonid Kalitenya (Belarus), Jasna Pintarič (Slovenia), Janka Pozsonyi (Hungary), Philipp Maurice Raube (Germany), Willy Rollé (Germany/France) and Rita Stanelytė (Lithuania) to hear from experts.

The latest round of SOFA workshops will follow from three 2020 meetings between filmmakers and professionals advising them. Image from workshop organisers.

Eastern partnership countries face severe realities as a result of global health crisis <...> individual cultural practitioners are at risk and need greater support. With the SOFA workshop we will signal that established international partnerships are there for all participants"

- Tamara Tatishvili, regional coordinator and mentor, SOFA

Providing insight and advice on strategies for ongoing projects will be Renaud Redien-Collot (Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Léonard de Vinci Business School, Paris), Peter Rommel (Rommel Film, Berlin) Sabine Schmitt (Social Media Marketing expert, Berlin), Tamara Tatishvili (MEDICI Head of Training, Georgia/Belgium), Levan Nanobashvili (Lawyer in the field of international media law, Georgia), Carolina Jochheim (German Federal Foreign Office, Berlin) and Wato Tsereteli (Artist, Curator, Georgia).

Tbilisi hosted in-person editions of the European workshop series before the pandemic. Photo: Ali Ghandtschi.

Commenting on the upcoming edition with its adapted curriculum, SOFA Director Nikolaj Nikitin said the project and its Georgian hosts "remain a perfect match", praising Georgian partners of SOFA for their "spirit and professional perspective [which] constantly proves to be a huge benefit for projects and participants."

Aiming to design "best possible digital performance" for workshop participants, organisers have also added the Georgian flavour to the online event by inviting  celebrity cook Meriko Gubeladze to introduce local culinary delights.

In addition, a screening of animation films by Georgian directors, and a talk with their producer Vladimer Katcharava of 20 Steps Production, will present the scene to those featured in the latest round of the meeting.

The Tbilisi workshop by SOFA is set to be hosted between March 22-26. The project is run by Berlin-based Filmplus gUG, itself funded by the German Federal Foreign Office and Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme of the European Union.