Venice Screenings of Georgian Film ‘The Antique’ Halted Due to Copyright Dispute

Venice Days, an independent sidebar of the Venice Film Festival, has announced the suspension of screenings for Georgian filmmaker Rusudan Glurjidze’s second feature film, “Antikvariati” (The Antique).

The organization has canceled the press and industry screening initially scheduled for August 28, along with removing the public screenings from the schedule.

This decision is a consequence of an emergency decree issued by the Court of Venice. The decree was obtained by three production companies — Viva Film in Russia, Avantura Film in Croatia, and Pygmalion in Cyprus — highlighting a copyright dispute concerning the film’s script, as stated by Venice Days.

Venice Days, also known as Giornate degli Autori, emphasized their commitment to defending copyright in their statement. They asserted that their primary responsibility, shared with Italian filmmakers’ associations, is to protect the rights of the filmmaker, Rusudan Glurjidze, who is present in Venice. The statement continued to stress the importance of taking the court’s decision seriously while awaiting further developments.

The statement added, “We will do whatever is in our power, in observance of the law as well as the freedom of expression of the filmmaker, to support the existence of the work itself and its visibility in Venice over the coming days.”

However, the specifics of what this “visibility” entails remain unclear at this time.