TBILISI: Cinemas in Georgia, which have been closed since mid-March 2020, will re-open at 50% of their capacity on 8 April 2021.

TBILISI: Alexander Koberidze’s feature film What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?, which had its world premiere in competition at the Berlin Film Festival, has been acquired by the world sales company Cercamon.

TBILISI: Tea Tsulukiani was appointed by the Parliament as the Minister of the newly created Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth of Georgia on 19 March 2020. Tsulukiani will take office on 22 March .

TBILISI: Salome Jashi’s documentary film Taming the Garden has been acquired by the film-distribution company Dogwoof for the UK. Toronto-based Syndicado Film Sales brokered the deal.

TBILISI: The Georgian National Film Center is in the midst of a major programme to restore some of the earliest films by Georgian filmmakers.

TBILISI: The German/Georgian coproduction What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? by Alexander Koberidze will vie in the main competition of the Berlinale, which will hold a special online edition 1 - 5 March 2021. The film is the first Georgian production to screen in the main competition in three decades.

TBILISI: Georgia was strongly affected by the Coronavirus pandemic, which shut down cinemas and film production for most of 2020, but Georgian films received new awards at international festivals. Georgian cinema days and retrospectives were held in Brussels, Tallinn, Split and Lisbon, and Georgia was the Focus Country at the 2020 Trento Film Festival.

TBILISI: Georgian film director Soso Chkhaidze's TV series/feature film Shvidkaca is being completed posthumously almost 30 years after the director’s death, and more than 40 years after he began filming. The film, whose working title is the word used to describe folk ensembles, is in the final phase of post-production. Principal photography took place In Tbilisi, Guria villages, Moscow and Stockholm from 1979 to 1987. The producer is Chkhaidze's widow, Nana Zurabishvili.

TBILISI: Dea Kulumbegashvili’s film Beginning has been acquired by the streaming platform Mubi for the USA and UK (Svod Release). This Georgian/French coproduction was selected for Cannes 2020 Official Selection. Paris-based Wild Bunch International is handling the sales. The release date is 29 January 2021.

TBILISI: The total 2020 box office in Georgia decreased by 86% from 4,145,123 EUR / 13,264,395 GEL in 2019 to 564,637 EUR / 2,258,549 GEL in 2020, as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Admissions to domestic films decreased from 37,865 in 2019 to 2,000 in 2020, while total admissions dropped by 83% from 1,359,365 in 2019 to 230,160 in 2020.