From October 1 to 3, 2024, the Batumi International Tourism Film Festival took place in Georgia, serving as a major public milestone and participatory cultural laboratory for the trans-European CARAVANE – Climate Art Fusion project. Officially opened at the Adjara Art Museum in Batumi, the festival was established to address the growing need for responsible, innovative audiovisual storytelling in tourism, sustainability communication, and the promotion of cultural heritage.
The 2024 edition presented a curated selection of Georgian and international tourism films competing across several categories, including destinations, services, gastronomy, and regional locations. Out of 64 submissions received, an international jury awarded prizes to eight standout films. The three-day program successfully blended public screenings, institutional dialogue, and professional networking, engaging a diverse audience composed of filmmakers, cultural professionals, students, and the general public. Audience feedback widely praised the exceptional professional quality of the films and reinforced the validity of tourism cinema as a practical tool for sustainable development and cultural representation.
A core pillar of the event was the International Youth ArtLab for Tourism Film Production, developed specifically under the CARAVANE framework to build youth capacity in audiovisual creation and sustainable tourism communication. The ArtLab integrated young creatives (aged 18 to 30) directly into the festival ecosystem, providing hands-on training through specialized masterclasses, collaborative production sessions, and public presentations. This immersive environment equipped participants with vital technical skills, ethical awareness, and professional confidence while offering them invaluable international exposure and direct engagement with industry experts and jury members.
The festival’s key public moments, screenings, and laboratory activities were systematically captured by GIRES (the Global Institute for Research, Education & Scholarship), an Amsterdam-based core partner of the CARAVANE project. Rejecting staged or directed scenes, GIRES utilized an authentic, observational approach to document the living cultural process—preserving the emergence of young voices, the cross-border dialogue, and the integration of climate-aware practices within the creative industries.