Many privately-held, independent production companies currently benefit from various film industry funding sources, including:
Georgian National Film Center
The Georgian National Film Center (GNFC) is the government agency responsible for facilitating state funding support for film production, industry development, and international outreach. GNFC is an independently-managed “Legal Entity of Public Law”, receiving annual funding from the Ministry of Culture and Sport.
GNFC also supports educational projects, festivals, travel grants, etc. For example, GNFC has supported Georgian projects’ participation in co-production markets and programs and hosted several international production workshops, including the popular Mini EAVE, Film London’s Microwave, and Robert Bosch industry meetings.
GNFC’s support is provided to feature films (development, first-time directors, established directors, co-production), feature documentaries (development, production, co-production), animated shorts (development, production), short films, and screenplay development. This results in about 10-15 annual production contests, with each contest allocated funding for a limited number of projects. GNFC’s production funding is capped at 75% of the total production budget, and subsidies received from GNFC are not recoupable.
Applications are evaluated by independent selection juries, assembled separately for every contest and consisting of rotating industry professionals to ensure industry involvement. To avoid conflicts of interest, jury members are prohibited from participation in the related contest(s).
Since 2001, Georgia has been party to the European Convention on European Co-Production (known as European Co-Production Treaty), enabling Georgia to easily co-produce with European firms either bilaterally or multilaterally. Additionally, Georgia has a bilateral co-production treaty with France. Similarly, Georgia is a member and frequent beneficiary of the Council of Europe’s pan-European co-production fund Eurimages. Georgia is also a member of European Union’s Creative Europe program and recently joined the Council of Europe’s European Audiovisual Observatory.
Furthermore, Georgia’s international memberships also include European Film Promotion (EFP), the international network of organizations promoting and marketing European films worldwide, and The Film New Europe Association, a networking platform of professionals in Central and Eastern Europe and in the Baltic region.
