What awaits audiences at the WINECAST Film and Wine International Festival

This August will be a season to remember for film lovers and wine enthusiasts in Georgia. In 2025, the WINECAST Festival invites them on an extraordinary journey through the labyrinth of their passions.

From 23–24 August at the enchanting Château Mukhrani, audiences will gather to discover films newly arrived from around the world — stories filled with romance and wonder, echoing distant lands where the grapevine is cherished as a living, breathing being, just as it has always been here, in the homeland of wine.

The films selected for WINECAST 2025 will arrive from every corner of the world, embracing every subject imaginable. At Château Mukhrani, with a glass of wine in hand, audiences can experience them all — Georgian and international alike.

But there is also something entirely new awaiting in the Château’s historic cellar: a never-before-seen format that cannot be missed. And while the programme is rich and diverse, one category shines with particular intensity — the wine-themed films.

These works are both gastronomic and existential. They speak of wine, but always in a language of poetry, where every glass becomes a reflection of the soul. Through their stories, filmmakers are, in truth, speaking about the human condition itself. And while many of this year’s most significant entries are documentaries, they thrum with the heartbeat of fiction — infused with romance, symbolism, and the mysterious artistry of the irrational.

23 August — Spain and France on screen

The audience at Château Mukhrani will be introduced to Spanish director Javier Calvo’s feature film Wine of the Sea (Cariñena), alongside French filmmaker Léo Boudet’s documentary The Hills of Wrath.

Calvo’s Spanish film tells the story of a dreamer, a young man escaping the suffocating grip of bureaucracy and daily routine in 1978. He dreams of becoming a writer, of tasting life in its fullness, and it is the vineyards of Spain — the grape’s youthful clusters as radiant as the country’s young democracy — that become his muse.

Boudet’s French documentary in turn takes us on a journey through rural France, teaching us about the trials endured by both vine and vintner before the plant matures and happiness ripens into a harvest.

24 August — Italy and the US take the stage

The following day, audiences will be transported to Italy and the US. Two documentaries will be screened: The Wines of the Famous and The Best Chef in the World.

In The Wines of the Famous, Italian actress Esmeralda Spadea travels through Tuscany, Apulia, Lazio, Abruzzo, Piedmont, and Emilia-Romagna. Along the way she meets celebrated figures, asking how their lives have intertwined with wine. For those less enchanted by gastronomy, fear not — Spadea is not afraid to ask questions of an entirely different nature.

Later, the festival presents The Best Chef in the World, a portrait of culinary genius Sally Schmitt — a woman who rose to the very peak of her profession, guided by passion and love for her craft.

Beyond the screen — conversations and wine

When the films end, the evening transforms into something far more enchanting than a simple Q&A. The audience is invited to taste wines from the very countries the films come from, and the festival’s most alluring ritual begins. No longer distant, untouchable gods of Olympus, the directors and stars descend into the crowd. Figures such as Esmeralda Spadea and Léo Boudet will meet festivalgoers face-to-face, sharing not only conversation, but glasses of wine in an intimate communion of cinema and the vine.

The tastings will be led by some of the world’s most distinguished sommeliers, including Marco Carinci, Patrick Honef, Irakli Kvantrishvili, Tamar Chichiboshvili, and the legendary Sur Lucero MA.

This is not merely a celebration of Georgian wine traditions — the tastings will feature international wines, each paired with the nationality of the film just screened. After the Spanish Wine of the Sea (Cariñena), for example, the audience will be invited to savour Spanish wines. This fusion of cinema and oenology, local and international, is a true innovation for Georgia, and has no parallel in the country’s cultural landscape.

The festival at a glance

The WINECAST International Film & Wine Festival will take place 20–24 August 2025, with its signature events on 23–24 August at Château Mukhrani.

Tickets are available at TKT.GE: https://tkt.ge/show/24426/kinos-da-ghvinis-saertashoriso-festivali-vainqasti