11 national films to compete in Antalya

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

This photo shows a scene from Umut Dağ’s film ‘Kuma.’ 11 films have been selected for the national Feature Film Competiton of 49th Golden Orange Film Festival.

The national films competing in the 49th Golden Orange Film Festival, with the theme “humor, opposition and democracy,” were announced Sept. 4, as well as the Lifetime Achievement Award recipients.

Antalya Metropolitan Municipality Secretary-General Mehmet Aktekin said the films in the national competition could not have competed in any other national competition, adding that this condition made the Golden Orange the most important film festival in Turkey. The festival, organized by the Antalya Foundation for Culture and Arts (AKSAV) and the Antalya Municipality, will open on Oct. 6.

Aktekin said the festival jury would evaluate the artistic creativity of the films, and that Turkish actress Hülya Avşar would head the jury in the national feature film competition. “The jury members include director Barış Pirhasan; producer Barbara Boyle; director of photography Uğur İçbak; the director of the International Eskişehir Film Festival, Professor Gülseren Güçhan; actors Selçuk Yöntem, Sümer Tilmaç, Ayşegül Aldinç and Pelinsu Pir; cinema writer Tunca Arslan; sociologist Mine Kırıkkanat; and cartoonist Erdil Yaşaroğlu,” he said. Aktekin said one of the leading figures in world cinema, Hungarian director Istvan Szabo, would head the 49th Golden Orange Film Festival’s international feature film competition. He also announced that for contributions to Turkish cinema director Duygu Sağıroğlu; producer Necip Sarıcı; and artists Güler Ökten, Salih Güney and Meral Zeren would be presented the Lifetime Achievement Award of the festival and that veteran actor İlyas Salman would be honored with a special award.

765,000 liras to be awarded in total

Aktekin said 11 feature films, 16 documentary films and 21 short films would compete at the festival and a total of 765,000 Turkish Liras would be given to the winners.

The Best Film Award is 400,000 liras, the Best First Film Award is 55,000 liras, the Best Director Award is 55,000 liras and the Best Script Award is 35,000 liras, according to Aktekin.

The films that will compete at the National Feature Film Competition of the festival are Çağatay Tosun’s “Derin Düşünce” (Deep thought), Ahmet Sönmez’s “Elveda Katya” (Farewell, Katya), Dilek Keser and Ulaş Güneş Kacargil’s “Evdeki Yabancılar” (Strangers at home), Hüseyin Tabak’s “Güzelliğin 10 Par Etmez” (Beauty isn’t worth it), Ersin Kana’s “Hile Yolu” (The path of deception), Ali Adnan Özgür’s “Toprağın Çocukları” (Children of the soil), Tunç Okan’s “Umut Üzümleri” (Grapes of hope), Erdem Tepegöz’s “Zerre,” Umut Dağ’s “Kuma” (The second wife), Ali Aydın’s “Küf” (Mold) and Rezzan Tanyeli’s “Pazarları Hiç Sevmem” (I don’t like Sundays).