The Tirana International Film Festival is all about creating a nurturing environment for film creators and film enthusiasts who come from Albania, all over Europe and the world, to unite and exchange knowledge and passion for the motion picture art form. Wishing to create opportunities for future cooperation and the development of scenic culture in Albania, the TIFF also gathers filmmakers, film producers, and distributors from various places to Tirana. As TIFF becomes the meeting point of all those distinct voices and works, it also ultimately serves the audiences ‘alternative visions of extraordinary diversity’.
The TIFF also aims at enriching the audience – especially the younger crowd – by setting up activities before, during or after the event. Some of the activities are year-long, and they consist of traveling to other cities, through various smaller partners and festival organizers. By working with small organizations and using youth centers’ facilities all over the country, TIFF not only manages a national impact, but also supports and gives more attention to small events in each city TIFF is present.
Since its inauguration, TIFF receives over 20,000 short and feature film, from over 120 counties around the world. More than 100 films get chosen each year for the competition. This ultimately makes TIFF an international cinema event which also aims at creating new audiences around the country, by combining film screenings with public debates and increasing film literacy.
Competition Program
The daily program of TIFF combines national premieres of feature films and short films in all formats and genres: fiction, documentary, animation, experimental and video art. Open to any filmmaker from around the world, TIFF showcases new cinematic work by established directors with international reputations, as well as movies by talented students and young artists.
Besides the competition program TIFF commits a large space to special interest programs and screenings. PANORAMA, for example, has some thematic programs dedicated to the most sensitive social topics and diverse social groups, such as for children, women, immigration, integration of persons with disabilities, LGBT, etc., separated in these sections: DIVERGENT MINDS; GENERATIONs; MADE In ALBANIAN; NEW WORLD; PARADE. FOCUS is a special program serving as a tribute or homage to the cinema creator and/or the cinematic work of a given country. RetrospecTIFF brings to the new audience the most prominent national or international authors of the film history, as part of enhancing film literacy and remembering the roots of the event. REFLECTING ALBANIA is the oldest program of the festival, dedicated to the foreign filmmakers who have produced their films in Albania or in Albanian speaking territories.
TIFForum, a regional approach to promote cinematographic production in Albania and co-productions in the region, will be a 3-day intensive workshop, in collaboration with Torino Film Lab, for Script Development & Pitching Competition of 8 first or second feature film projects, consisting of individual consultations, practical writing exercises and lectures. The projects will work on their pitch with a trainer in the following 2 days. On the last day every participant will pitch his project and compete for the Best Pitch Award.TIFF provides time in its daily schedule for master-classes and seminars with professionals in the motion picture industry geared for Albanian students of the cinema and emerging filmmakers.
Through 4 new services, called PARALLEL SCREENINGS, TIFF is now able to offer the opportunity to show films in alternative ways, considering the big number of applications. Those are the TIFF.TV Competition, where directors screening their films to Albanian audiences compete for the TV awards, TIFF On Tour, where movies travel through Albania in different cities and regional festivals, TIFF Online Library, an online presentation of each film in an online film library, with the possibility to receive comments from the international audience, and TIFF Market Corner, where potential buyers can watch all films and make their selection.
TIFF ’15 Highlights
The opening ceremony of the TIFF will be held at Millennium Cinema, on Friday, and there will also be an opening party at 9pm at the Tulla Cultural Centre. Starting from Saturday, short films and features will be played throughout the day in various cinematic venues around Tirana, such as the Agimi Cinema and the Toys’ Theatre.
“Mothering” by Roqieh Tavakkoli is the sole Iranian films competing with eight feature films from Sweden, Bulgaria, Turkey, Croatia and several other countries. 20 Fiction movies have been selected to compete, where Georgina ‘8 Minutes’ and Serbian ‘Fluffy’ stand along among German, French, Israeli, Iranian, Greek and Belgian movies. The MADE In ALBANIAn category will feature films from Albania, Kosovo and Spain, while the REFLECTING ALBANIA category will feature films from Greek and Macedonian directors. 4 films from Israel will appear in the Go2Films category, and the FUTURE IS HERE will bring collaborations between Albania and Kosovo, and Kosovo and Serbia.
Information on all the fiction and feature films can be found on the TIFF official website, along with producers and directors’ information and participation/submission directions.
