The Batumi International Art-House Film Festival (BIAFF) in Georgia is marking its 20th anniversary with two new jury prizes, three high-profile lifetime achievement awards and its biggest programme to date.
Running from September 19–26, the festival features more than 50 films, spanning the international feature film competition, international short film competition, masters collection, special screenings, Georgian film heritage programmes and Music in Cinema.
Screenings take place across four venues in the southwestern Georgian city: Batumi Drama Theatre and Cavea Grand Mall indoors, and Europe Square and an outdoor screening venue at Iveria beach on the Black Sea.
“I am looking forward to full screenings, people discovering filmmakers, and hearing the conversations afterwards,” says managing board member Lasha Khalvashi, a renowned international producer through his Studio Artizm outfit, with credits including Tinatin Kajrishvili’s Citizen Saint and Hugo Keijzer’s The Occupant.
“Cinema is an important form of cultural dialogue. That is why the quality of the selection matters so much. Giving more people the opportunity to see these films was one of the main reasons we expanded from one screening venue to four.
The 10-title international competition comprises György Pálfi’s Hen, Lluís Miñarro’s Emergency Exit, Rafael Manuel’s Filipiñana, Lance Hammer’s Queen At Sea and David Verbeek’s The Wolf, The Fox & The Leopard.
Two Georgian titles are also in competition: opening film Guria, from Levan Koguashvili, fresh from its world premiere in the Spotlight programme of the Venice Film Festival, and Giorgi Ovashvili’s The Moon Is A Father of Mine.
UK producer Christian Baute of Headline Pictures chairs the international competition jury, which includes Serbian producer Miroslav Mogorović, who is also programme director of the Palić European Film Festival, Polish filmmaker Rafael Kapelinski, Bulgarian cinematographer Krum Rodriguez and Georgian actress Mari Kitia.
The masterclass programme for young filmmakers features Gela Babluani, whose debut 13 Tzameti won Venice’s best debut prize in 2005 and Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Jury Prize in 2006, and Tinatin Kajrishvili, whose Citizen Saint was Georgia’s 2023 Oscar submission for best international feature film, produced by Khalvashi and Kajrishvili for Germini.
The festival is also presenting lifetime achievement awards to Polish director Agnieszka Holland, whose film Franz screens in the Masters Collection strand; UK-Irish producer Mike Downey; and Georgian director Temur Babluani.
This year’s edition also includes the ninth Alternative Wave, BIAFF’s international industry platform. Eight Georgian filmmaking teams will work on scripts, pitching skills and financing strategies with experts from around Europe. This year they include story consultant Paul Tyler, who runs the Handling Ideas outfit, screenwriter and novelist Nicos Panayotopoulos, head of studies at MFI Script2Film, and John Durie, the UK founder of Strategic Film Marketing.
“The contribution from the experts covers project development, financing and co-production strategies, and how a film might reach its audience,” says Khalvashi. “We want participants to leave with useful feedback and relationships they can develop after the festival.”
Innovations
Founded in 2006, BIAFF focuses on international arthouse cinema. Over the years it has hosted filmmakers including Abbas Kiarostami, Béla Tarr, Paul Schrader, Krzysztof Zanussi, Paweł Pawlikowski and Nastassja Kinski.
For its anniversary, the festival is launching a festival alley (BIAFF Alley), where honorary guests can plant trees, plus two new juries: the Georgian Film Critics Jury and a Youth Jury, each with its own award.
The Georgian film heritage programme comprises 10 restored features and a separate collection of 17 restored animated films for younger audiences. Restored Georgian silent films from the early 1920s will screen at Iveria Beach with live musical accompaniment.
The Masters Collection strand includes Paweł Pawlikowski’s Fatherland, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s All Of A Sudden, Holland’s Franz, Volker Schlöndorff’s Visitation, Asghar Farhadi’s Parallel Tales, Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia, Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord and Ulrike Ottinger’s The Blood Countess.
“We want BIAFF to be a place where younger filmmakers and recognised masters can meet, speak openly and share their experiences,” Khalvashi says. “There’s also a practical side: finding collaborators, discussing projects and building relationships with professionals from other countries, encounters that can continue long after the festival ends.”
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