Editions
Dates, highlights and companies from each year of the festival.
25 October – 20 November 2025
Opened by Sankai Juku at the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre. Strands: Focus Italia, the Basque–Georgian Cultural Crossroads and the GIFT Biennale College for young Georgian artists.
- Sankai Juku — Meguri
- Kulunka Teatro — André & Dorine
- Focus Italia with Marco Martinelli & Ermanna Montanari
- Kukai Dantza — Basque–Georgian Crossroads
- Hoi. — Maro (Biennale College)
3 – 15 November 2024
Poster: “Moon and Mirror” by George Wolf Plank, designed by Beso Danelia. The Mikheil Tumanishvili Prize for Excellence in Art went to Declan Donnellan, Giorgi Margvelashvili and Davit Evgenidze.
- Oedipus Rex — dir. Declan Donnellan
- Lapis Lazuli — Euripides Laskaridis
- Biennale College seminar
- Posthumous — staged reading
Autumn 2023
A Swiss Focus under a poster after Francis Picabia’s “Adam and Eve”, with Theodoros Terzopoulos as the festival’s honorary ambassador.
- Thom Luz — Girl from the Fog Machine Factory
- Attis Theatre — AMOR
- The Glory Wall — dir. Leonardo Manzan
Opened 18 October 2022
A jubilee edition with a Greek Focus, featuring Theodoros Terzopoulos’ “Alarme” at the Marjanishvili Theatre.
- Attis Theatre — Alarme
19 October – 16 November 2019
Daily attendance above 10,000. GIFT received the EFFE Label 2019–2021 (Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe).
- Compagnie Maguy Marin — May B
- Aurélia Thierrée — Bells & Spells
- Rocío Molina — Caída del Cielo
- Carolyn Carlson — Crossroads to Synchronicity
- Andriy Zholdak — King Lear, world premiere
Autumn 2018
With the Embassy of Italy: Sardegna Teatro’s “Macbettu” at the Rustaveli Theatre, Tenore Murales at the Conservatoire and “La Stoffa dei Sogni” at Amirani cinema.
- Sardegna Teatro — Macbettu
- Tenore Murales
- La Stoffa dei Sogni — screening
15 October – 28 November 2016
Eva Yerbabuena, the Vakhtangov Theatre, the Volksbühne Berlin, Dmitry Krymov Lab and an Italian Focus programmed with the Embassy of Italy in Tbilisi.
- Eva Yerbabuena — Rain
- Volksbühne Berlin — Murmel Murmel
- Dmitry Krymov Lab — Demon. View from Above
- Proxima Res — Medea: Material
17 October – 17 November 2015
Headlined by Rimas Tuminas’ “Eugene Onegin” with the Vakhtangov Theatre.
- Vakhtangov Theatre — Eugene Onegin
17 October – 17 November 2014
Georgian International Festival of Arts in honour of Mikheil Tumanishvili.
Film archive
Performances and stories captured on film.
01/02
Sharon Eyal & S-E-D — Delay the Sadness · trailer (2026)
