The 20th Tbilisi International Film Festival is now being held at the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, backed by the city's Yunus Emre Institute (YEE).

In addition to the YEE, the Georgian Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports, the European Union, British Council, Goethe Institute, French Institute, Spanish Cultural Center, National Center for National Cinema of Georgia, TBC Bank, Tbilisi Municipality, and a various assortment of companies and embassies have provided support for the festival.

The opening ceremony of the film festival, held at Amirani Cinema, was attended by Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze, YEE Tbilisi Coordinator Ali Oğuzhan Yüksel, as well as a host of ambassadors, artists and members of the public. In the opening speech, Kaladze expressed his pleasure that Tbilisi was hosting such as important festival, pledging support for the festival in the future as well.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA) after the opening ceremony, Gaga Chkheidze, Founder and Director of Tbilisi International Film Festival, stated that the festival has been held for 20 years.

Indicating that they had arranged the festival in close cooperation with Turkey over recent years, in particular, Chkheidze stated: "As for our cultural cooperation with Turkey, we now enjoy wonderful traditional relations. Almost every year, Turkish films are screened as part of our program. We are closely following developments in the world of Turkish cinema."

Chkheidze remarked that they would mutually strive to further bolster cultural relations. The YEE Tbilisi Institute is to contribute a showing of the movie "Bağlılık Aslı" ("Commitment - Aslı"), written and directed by Semih Kaplanoğlu. The film will be screened on Dec. 4-7. The festival ends on Dec. 8.