TBILISI: Storgetnya by Iranian director Hovig Hagopian was awarded Best Film at the 9th edition of CinéDOC - Tbilisi, the most important documentary film festival in Georgia, which took place online from 15 August to 15 September 2021.

MESTIA: A total of 24 titles have been selected for the short film competition of the inaugural edition of the Mestia International Short and Mountain Film Festival, which will take place in person from 15 to 19 September 2021. This is the first festival of this kind to be held in Georgia.

FNE’s Georgian correspondent and film critic Alexander Gabelia spoke to producer Agnieszka Dziedzic, founder and co-owner of a production company Koi Studio, a member of the Polish Guild of Producers, and a board member of the Polish Audiovisual Producers Chamber, about the challenges she has faced as a producer during the pandemic, as well as on the challenges and activities of the film industry, on site as the Polish film industry begins to recover from the pandemic.

BATUMI: Nine titles have been selected for the International Feature Films Competition of the Batumi International Art house Film Festival, running 18-24 September 2021. The lineup includes films from Georgia, Hungary, Lithuania and Poland.

TBILISI: Ten Georgian producers will participate in the first part of the Georgian/Spanish project Spain-Georgia B2B In Film Industry, organised by the Georgian National Film Center and Entidad de Gestión de Derechos de los Productores Audiovisuales (EGEDA) within the Platino Industria Forum in Madrid (27 September - 1 October 2021).

FNE correspondent Alexander Gabelia spoke to Barbara Orlicz-Szczypuła, head of programming at Krakow Film Festival. One year after the 2020 festival edition had to go online Krakow FF became one of the first events in the region to go live again taking place from 30 May to 6 June 2021 with cinema screenings and networking cocktails to bring filmmakers together again.

TBILISI: German director/screenwriter Veit Helmer is in production with Gondola, a feature film he is currently shooting in the Georgian mountains. This German/Georgian coproduction is the second project by Helmer with Georgia’s Natura Film as a minority coproducer, after The Bra, which premiered at the Tokyo Film Festival in 2018.

FNE's Georgian correspondent Alexander Gabelia spoke to Ileana Stanculescu, Festival Coordinator for CinéDOC-Tbilisi. Ileana shares with us the challenges the festival faces after the pandemic forced 2020 to be a hybrid event and 2021 to go online. She shares how the festival is meeting these challenges by cooperating with local TV broadcasters and sharing experiences with other festivals. The festival takes place from 15 August to 15 September 2021.