Tbilisi: With the financing of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth of Georgia and the organization of the Society “Georgian Film”, for the first time in the history of Georgian cinema, a Georgian film criticism portal “Georgian Cinema Review” was created.
At the presentation, Georgian Minister of Culture, Sport and Youth Tea Tsulukiani, the leaders of the project – filmmaker and producer Khatuna Khundadze and film historian Zviad Dolidze and member of the Board of Directors of Georgian Film, filmmaker Merab Kokochashvili were present.
The event was also attended by Ketevan Dumbadze, Deputy Chairman of the Cultural Committee of the Parliament of Georgia, Chairman of the Diaspora and Caucasus Affairs Committee, Beka Odisharia, Member of the Culture Committee, Representatives of the Georgian Film Academy and National Center for Cinematography, Rector of the Theater and Film University Giorgi Filmmakers and film critics, as well as the project “Modern Georgian” The authors of theatrical criticism.
As the minister noted at the presentation, after promoting the project – “Modern Georgian Theater Critique”, the Ministry of Culture supports an unprecedented project, a private platform where any film critic or student working on the subject of the film can write about modern Georgian cinema.
As Tea Tsulukiani noted, the project is unprecedented because until now, there was no platform where both modern and older generation film critics and other interesting material about Georgian cinema would be gathered. For the first time, students of film science have the opportunity to prepare articles on student films. The Ministry of Culture allocated 60 000 GEL for the project this year.
On the bilingual portal https://gfr.ge, both local and foreign cinema lovers who are interested in Georgian cinema will get acquainted with the history of Georgian cinema, peculiarities, trends, main aspects and new films. The reader will also see photographs from the history of Georgian cinema and read the best reviews of older-generation film critics in the early years.
In cooperation with the cinema “Kaveasa” and the portal “Kavea+”, the film critics and students working on this subject will be allowed to attend the premiere of all modern Georgian films and watch Georgian films shot in recent years.
The website is bilingual. Reviews translated into English will be a kind of guide to Georgian films in the international arena.
Professional and film science students participate in the process of working on the portal, whose analytical articles on Georgian professional or student artistic, documentary, and animation works will make a significant contribution to the development of film criticism and the promotion of national cinematography.
It is noteworthy that with the support of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth of Georgia, the Union of Theater Critics and the Center for Modern Georgian Theater Research, the project “Modern Georgian Theater Criticism” has been successfully implemented since 2021 Within the project, professional theatre researchers, at their will, observe the creative process in modern Georgian theatre, which they want to evaluate/analyze.
They systematically visit theatres of Tbilisi and regions. On the electronic portal (https://www.theatrelife.ge/). There are a number of articles or reviews available for viewers interested in theatre. The project was initially supported by the Georgian theatre community with funding from the Ministry of Culture, and this year, again, with funding from the Ministry of culture, the project is carried out by the Georgian Shota Rustaveli Theater and Cinema State University.
