Int'l Tourism Film Festival opens in Baku
By Laman Ismayilova
The 4th Baku International Tourism Film Festival solemnly opened in the capital on November 15.
The festival’s mission is to promote films on various aspects of tourism, the identification of the most successful films that propaganda domestic and international tourism and the promotion of their authors. The festival also aims to draw attention to the tourism potential of Azerbaijan as one of the international centers of the historical and cultural heritage.
A press conference timed to the film festival was held in Nizami Cinema Center.
In his speech, festival's director Nazim Huseynov stressed that BITFF Selection Committee received 424 films from 70 countries. The festival's program consists of 84 films from 43 countries. Four works are submitted from Azerbaijan in the competitive program.
The international jury includes cinematographers, mass media representatives, travel and tourism experts.
The jury members Rafig Guliyev and Ulker Mutallimova (Azerbaijan), Eva Kotus (Poland), Zurab Dvali (Georgia) and jury chairman Jan Saraglu (Turkey), took part in the press conference.
The director of the International Committee of Tourism Film Festivals (CIFFT) Alexandra Kammela (Austria) said that interest to the festival grows year by year.
It was stressed that in addition to competitive and non-competitive program BITFF includes seminars, discussions and exchange of experience among filmmakers, experts in tourism and the media.
Film screenings take place at Nizami Cinema Center Nizami. The admission of the festival to run until November 18 is free.
The competition includes five categories: Country / region / city, Culture and tradition, Commercials, Ecotourism, TV-products (films, videos).
The jury members will determine three winners in each category. All domestic movies will compete for Grand Prix of the festival.
BITFF is an annual non-profit cultural event, organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
The first edition of Baku International Tourism Film Festival was held in 2013. BITFF is the member of the International Committee of Tourism Film Festivals (CIFFT) based in Vienna, Austria.
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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova
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