The 17th Batumi International Art-house Film Festival will be held in Batumi during 18-25 September. Batumi International Film Festival was established in 2006. Organizer of the film festival - Batumi House of Artists "Argani".

Film Screenings will take place at Apollo Cinema and Europe Square. The film festival will feature 30 full-length feature and documentary films from more than 30 countries, as well as 25short films.

This year BIAFF is facing very difficult financial situation – all major government sponsors (Ministry of Culture of Georgia, Georgian National Film Center, Ministry of Culture of Ajara region, Batumi city hall) refused to finance the BIAFF festival which never happened in past years.

Regardless this difficulties, BIAFF festival management still manages to held the festival with support of several embassies, some foreign partners and via FUNDRAISING campaign (see - https://bit.ly/biaffsupportcampaign ) to collect minimum fund which is necessary to cover some basic costs.

BIAFF film festival’s program consists of both competition and non-competition sections. Bellow is the full line-up: 

BIAFF   Feature Films Competition section

BIAFF feature films will be assessed by the following Jury – Lech Majewsky (Poland) – Head of Jury, Carmen Grey (Germany),  Lasha Khalvashi, Nino Basilia, Gela Babluani (Georgia).

Ten films will be presented in this section: 

1. “19”, Manijet Heckmat, Iran/Germany, 2022; 75 min.
2. “Klondike”, Maryna Er Gorbach, Turkey/Ukraine, 2021; 100 min.
3. “Kerr”, Tayfun Pirselimoglu, Turkey/Greece/France, 2022; 100 min.
4. “A Piece of Sky”, Michael Koch, Switzerland/Germany, 2022; 137 min.
5. “Una Feminna – The Code of Silence”, Francesco Costabile, Italy, 2022; 120 min.
6. “Four Walls”, Bahman Gobhadi, Turkey/UK, 2021; 114 min.
7. “A Fleeting Encounter”, Romed Wyder, Switzerland, Luxembourg, 2022, 85 min
8. “Sermon to the Fish”, Hilal Baydarov, Azerbaijan, Mexico, Switzerland, Turkey, 2022; 90 min
9. „Herd Immunity“, Adilkhan Yerzhanov, Kazakhstan/France, 2021; 94 min.
10. 10.“A room of My Own”, Soso Bliadze, Georgia, Germany, 2022, 107 min.

BIAFF   Short Films Competition section - BIAFF short films will be assessed by the following Jury – Zurab Tsintskiladze (Georgia), Ileana Stanculescu (Romania), Tornike Gogrichiani (Georgia).

Twenty films will be presented in this section:

1. “Axel”, Levan Uchaneishvili, Georgia, 2022; 30 min.
2. “Easter”, Nikoloz Verdzadze, Georgia, 2022; 25 min.
3. “My Friend Andro”, Katalyna Bakradze, Georgia, 2022; 14 min.
4. “Ronin’s Confession”, Giorgi Khukhunaishvili, Georgia, 2022; 10 min.
5. „Without a Promise, Tati Baramia, Georgia, 2022; 13 min.
6. “Zebra”, Sandro Naveriani, Georgia, 2022; 12 min.
7. “And Then They Burn the Sea”, Majid Al-Remaihi, Qatar, 2021; 12 min.
8. “Concertina”, Gabriel Gonzalez Acosta, Mexico, 2022; 13 min.
9. “Curupira and the machine of the destiny”, Janaina Wagner, France/Brazil, 2021; 25 min.
10. “Devil”, Jan Bujnowski, Poland, 2022; 19 min.
11. “Freaking awesome life”, Hana Jalali, Ukraine/Iran, 2022’ 15 min.
12. “It is quiet here”, Novruz Hikmet / Olena Podolianko , Ukraine, 2022; 12 min.
13. “Khadiga”, Morad Mostafa, Egypt, 2022; 20 min.
14. “Light Incredibly Light”, Antimo Campanile, Italy, 2021; 15 min.
15. “Moune Ô”, Maxime Jean-Baptiste, Belgium/French Guiana/France, 2022; 16 min.
16. “Nothing To See Here”, Nicolas Bouchez, Portugal, 2022; 16 min.
17. “On Xerxes’ Throne”, Evi Kalogiropoulou, Greece, 2022; 15 min.
18. “Scale”, Joseph Pierce , France / UK / Belgium / Czech Republic, 2022; 15 min.
19. “The Distance of Time”, Carlos Ormeño Palma, Peru, 2021; 19 min.
20. “The Rat”, Zhantemir Baimukhamedov, Kazakhstan, 2022; 28 min.

MASTERS’ Collection

1. “Leonora Addio”, Paolo Taviani, Italy, 2022, 90 min.
2. “Brigitte Bardot Forever”, Lech Majewski, Poland, 2021; 122 min.
3. “Eo”, Jerzy Skolimowski, Poland/Italy, 2022, 86 min.
4. “Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania”, Jonas Mekas, Lithuania/USA, 1972; 82 min.
5. “Triangle of Sadness, Ruben Östlund, Sweden/Germany/France/Denmark, 2022, 142 min.
6. “Tori & Lokita”, Jean-Pierre Dardenne/Luc Dardenne, Belgium/France, 2022; 88 min.

FOCUS ON UKRAINE

1. “Klondike”, Maryna Er Gorbach, Turkey/Ukraine, 2021; 100 min.
2. “Mariupolis 2, Mantas Kvedaravičius/Hanna Bilobrova , Lithuania/France/Germany,2022; 112 min.
3. “One day in Ukraine”, Volodymyr Tykhyy, Ukraine/Poland, 2022, 77 min.
4. “Reflection”, Valentyn Vasyanovych, Ukraine, 2021, 125 min

GEORGIAN PANORAMA

1. “Fourth Brighton”, Levan Koghuashvili, Georgia/USA, 2021; 90 min.
2. “Scraps From an Incinerated Diary”, Gio Mgeladze, Georgia/Nepal/Italy/USA, 2022; 67 min.
3. “Musketeer's Tbilisi”, George Chumburidze, Georgia, 2022, 58 min.
4. “Chemical Marriage”, Nino Basilia, Georgia/Germany, 2022, 80 min.
5. “Casus Beli”, Maciej Maciejowski, Poland, 2022; 70 min.
6. “Heatwave”, Tornike Gogrichiani, Georgia, 2021; 24 min
7. “Beyond the War”, Mertsia Kutateladze, Georgia, 2022; 8 min.
8. “Incident” Amiko Qavtaradze, Georgia, 2022; 15 min.
9. “Many Timer”, Set of Short films by Eldar Shengelaia, Georgia, 2022; 58 min.

CINE-DOC TBILISI FESTIVAL’s Films

1. “A Stage”, George Varsimashvili, Georgia, 2022, 85 min
2. “Nelly and Nadine”, Magnus Gertten, Sweden/Belgium/ Norway, 2022, 92 min
3. “Atonal Glow”, Alexander Koridze, Georgia, 2022, 66 min
4. “Respublika”, Khvicha Emiridze and Tinatin Emiridze, Georgia, 2022, 70 min
5. “The Christmas Tree Case”, Anzhela Frangyan, Armenia, 2021, 47 min
6. “Water Has No Border”, Maradia Tsaava, Georgia/France, 2021, 85 min
7. “Sweeping Yerevan”, Nairi Hakhverdi, Armenia/France, 2020, 53 min
8. “5 Dreamers and a Horse”, Vahagn Khachatryan, Armenia, 2022, 82 min
9. “Hey, Gunesh!”, Anna Jegnaradze, Marita Tevzadze, Georgia, 2021, 22 min
10. “With a Dash of Humor and Numbing Grief”, Lala Aliyeva, Azerbaijan, 2021, 17 min
11. “Men and Reptiles”, Nurlan Hasanli, Azerbaijan, 2022, 15 mi
12. “Collective”, Alexander Nanau, Romania/Luxemburg, 2019, 109 min
13. “Varda by Agnès”, Agnès Varda, France, 2019, 115 min

Festival Supporters –  Embassy of Switzerland, French Institute, Embassy of Italy, Embassy of Sweden, Embassy of Lietuva, Batumi Puppet Theatre
Festival Sponsors – Cinema APOLLO, hotel “Admiral“,   ART ITALY GROUP, Mareteli Friends Winery, Marketing company “SHINDI”
Festival Media Partners – Georgian Public Broadcaster, Radio Fortuna/Fortuna+, Adjara TV, Batumi TV, Podcast Batumi, Film New Europe (www.filmneweurope.com), AT.GE, Newspaper BATUMELEBI, netgazeti.ge, CinExpress.ge
Festival partners for presenting films – Matchfactory, New Europe Film Sales, Arizona Productions, Hanwayfilms, DirectoryFilms, ArtHood Entertainment, Asian Shadows, Irimage

Contact information:
Tel: 599-482181, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., For accreditation – This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Web: www.biaff.org, www.facebook.com/biaffbatumi