A variety of special sections, awards from judges and film critics, as well as workshops for professionals will bring cinephiles to Georgia’s capital for the Tbilisi International Film Festival next week.

Launching on Monday, the 19th TIFF edition will feature Italy as focus country and Cannes Film Festival winner Sergei Loznitsa as director in focus. The latter will be honoured with the Honorary Prometheus Prize while three of his works — the Cannes-winning Donbass and the documentaries The Trial and Victory Day — are screened within the event.  This year’s festival is themed after literature, with a section Literature and Cinema featuring screenings of films about authors.

Director and writer Raimundas Banionis will chair the jury panel for the international competition, with Asia Pacific Screen Awards-winning Nima Javidi, author Archil Kikodze, TOKYO FILMeX International Film Festival Director Kanako Hayashi and producer Céline Nusse on the team.

Continuing themed sections, the Baltics 100 section will involve cinema from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, while the Made in Germany section will showcase newest works by directors from the country.

Beside focus on foreign cinema, local feature, short and documentary works will be assessed for prizes under the Georgian Panorama of TIFF. Director Gigisha Abashidze’s ‘Neighbours’ is part of the competition section:  Along with the focus on Loznitsa, organisers will celebrate two more individuals of the profession. The 100th anniversary of the birth of famed Swedish director Ingmar Bergman will be marked with screening of the major creative’s 1966 feature Persona, the Academy Award-nominated Autumn Sonata and 1957 work Wild Strawberries.

Paying homage to contributors of Georgian cinema, TIFF will award celebrated filmmaker Giorgi Shengelaia, and host a screening of a digitised version of his 1962 classic Alaverdoba. Prizes outside of competition programmes will include a EU4GEORGIA award for a film on human rights and a Bakur Sulakauri Publishing House prize.

In addition, hosts of the Iluzioni TV programme will pick their favourite from the international competition section. Outside of film screenings and competition, the festival will host professionals for lectures on pitching long and short fiction works.

These will involve BAFTA-winning British director Peter Greenaway (The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Love, Nightwatching) will lead a masterclass within the industry programme as the guest of honour.

The 2018 Tbilisi International Film Festival will run in Georgia’s capital between December 3-9.