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We’re supporting filmmakers from all over Azerbaijan committed to their non-fiction projects with social-driven topics. KinoLab supports filmmakers to develop their projects from the early stage. Our workshop accompanies you through the first steps of the project - the subject, narrative, and visual language development, necessary in order to develop your story and push your project further.
In three short residential sessions and online consultations, you will work on your film with international tutors, experienced directors, and fellow participants.
The training program will be led by Nino Orjonikidze, award-winning filmmaker, curator, and experienced tutor. Her mentorship will be accompanied by lectures of invited guest speakers, editing and pitching training. In the final stage, each participant will have a chance to pitch their developed project to the jury.
We offer
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Mentorship by lead tutor Nino Orjonikidze and lectures by renowned film professionals to shape your idea into a film project
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3 weeks workshop focusing on the first steps of film development and pitching training
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Work in an inspiring environment with established tutors
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Networking platform
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Internship fee for participation to be paid to each selected project of 150USD
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The winner will be granted the amount of 500USD to assist in the further development of their project.
Review process
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After you submit your application, you will receive an email notification about your application acceptance. If you are among a small group of finalists you will get the second email notification and an invitation to the Skype interview.
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Decisions are final and may not be appealed. However, unsuccessful applicants are welcome to apply again in the future.
Submission and Eligibility
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Film idea - We are looking for engaging non-fiction stories, experiences that are innovative, feasible, and that challenge social reality. We are also open to projects that are already in development. Although we love works that challenge definitions of the documentary, purely fiction films are not accepted. (Max 3 pages, min 1 photo project-related included)
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Your motivation letter and CV (Max 500 words)
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Prior experience with film - please provide a link
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English (spoken and written) - the workshop is held in English language exclusively
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Time availability, 100% participation during the workshops.
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Stable internet connection

The deadline is Tuesday, March 21st, 2023. But the sooner you let us know what you are working on, the better. All proposals will be evaluated by both - an internal and external selection committee. 2nd round of the selection process will be conducted online in the form of interviews.
We will notify you of the final selection committee’s decision by March 24th, 2023.
The first stage of Kino Lab is workshop sessions and will be held in Baku with the lead of Nino Orjonikidze from April 17th to 21st, 2023.
The second session - May 10th till the 15th of 2023 - will be focusing on the editing of your trailer and progressing in the story development
The third session - By the end of June 2023 KinoLab will hold two-days of Pitching training with Michaela Sabo and the Pitching session of projects of all the participants to an international jury. The session will follow up with one-to-one meetings to get individual feedback.
The jury will select a winner of the pitching sessionThe winner will be granted the amount of 500USD to assist in the further development of their project.
KinoLab is partnering with the Film Mentoring Program of CinéDOC-Tbilisi and the CinéDOC-Talent Pitch. Our cooperation includes that the winning project of KinoLab 23 will be selected for the CinéDOC-Talent Pitching training and for the Pitching session itself. In addition to that, all KinoLab 23 participants will get access to the open masterclasses of the Film Mentoring Program of CinéDOC-Tbilisi.
Nino Orjonikidze is a Georgian documentary filmmaker – author of several award-winning documentaries, including English Teacher, Altzaney, The Bridge, A Tunnel, a co-production with ARTE/ZDF, premiered at IDFA in 2019. It has won several awards at different film festivals including the Grand Prix at Trento Film Festival, Makedox, DokuBaku. After teaching Documentary film at GIPA for the last 10 years and curating short documentary film production at Chai Khana Media platform for the last 7 years, Nino is well acquainted with the regional documentary film scene. Herself alumni of many interesting training initiatives including EsoDoc, she is now tutoring internationally, be it international exchange academic programs or training initiatives. Nino runs a production company Artefact Production focusing on the production of creative documentary films. She studied journalism, video production, and documentary film at Goldsmiths, University of London (MA), and Tbilisi State University (BA).