Countdown to Golden Boll kicks off

ISTANBUL

The main theme of this year's festival is the '100th Year of Turkish Cinema.'

The 21st International Golden Boll Film Festival will be held this year between Sept. 15 and 21 in Adana, featuring selected films from Turkish and world cinema as well as exhibitions, talks, concerts and workshops.

At a press conference held yesterday at Istanbul’s Çırağan Palace, Adana Metropolitan Mayor Hüzeyin Sözlü introduced the festival. He said some festival events would be organized outside the center of Adana for the first time.

Kadir Beycioğlu, the programs coordinator for the festival, said the festival would celebrate Turkish novelist Orhan Kemal’s 100th year. Beycioğlu also said special events for Turkish and world literature would take place.

Beycioğlu said the festival had followed films that joined the Cannes, Berlin and Venice film festivals and would organize a special screening for Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “Kış Uykusu” (Winter Sleep), which won the Palme d’Or award at the Cannes Film Festival this year.

He added that a restored copy of Ömer Lütfi Akad’s 1973 film “Gelin” (Bride), the Dardanne Borthers’ “Two Days, One Night” and David Cronenberg’s “Maps to the Stars” would be screened at the festival.

“The festival makes a serious contribution to Turkish cinema,” Beycioğlu said. “The festival is also a stage where talents are discovered and introduced to the cinema world. The festival draws great interest from people in the city. The galas of all competition films are full. This is one of the contributions of the festival to Adana.”

This year the main theme of the festival is the “100th Year of Turkish Cinema.” The festival jury will evaluate nine films among 45 for the Golden Boll Award in the National Feature Film category. Seven of the films are debuts for their directors, and eight will make their Turkey premiere. Famous director Reha Erdem will head the jury of the National Feature Film Competition at this year’s event.

A total of 740,000 Turkish Liras will be awarded at the end of the festival: 630,000 liras for the National Feature Films Competition, 30,000 liras for the National Student Films Competition and 40,000 liras for the Mediterranean Countries Short Film Competition. The winner of the best film will be given 350,000 liras, the best director will be awarded with 50,000 liras and the winner of the Yılmaz Güney special award will receive 75,000 liras.

Last year 12 movies competed for the grand awards of the festival. The best director award went to Erdem for his film “Jîn.”