Festival to commemorate Alfred Hitchcock

ISTANBUL

The 39th Istanbul Film Festival will be held from April 10 to 21. The largest international film event in Turkey, the festival will screen more than 150 feature films.

The festival, commemorating the legendary director Alfred Hitchcock by screening all his films in color, will cover the streets of Istanbul with posters featuring a dream-like incarnation of the birds of the renowned director.

The Cinema Awards of the 39th Istanbul Film Festival will be presented to three revered figures of Turkish cinema at the opening gala of the festival on April 9.

The Festival’s Honorary Cinema Awards will be presented to musician, composer, songwriter and actress Hümeyra, a genuine and unique artist whose fan base ever expands, and to filmmaker Birsen Kaya, one of the first female directors and scriptwriters from Turkey who has worked with a variety of directors across genres during her career. Seher Karabol, who has always sided with labor and laborers and struggled for the improvement and international promotion of Turkish cinema, will receive the Outstanding Contribution to Cinema Award.

Hitchcock in Color

Commemorating legendary director Hitchcock on the 40th anniversary of his death, this festival is one of the special sections of the 39th Istanbul Film Festival. “Hitchcock in Color” beckons the fans and younger generations who haven’t watched the films of this influential director to the movie theater and the silver screen experience. Remastered copies of 15 color feature films directed by the “Master of Suspense” will be screened, thus presenting the director’s timeless classics.

The Istanbul Film Festival has been running the project Turkish Classics Revisited, restoring significant works of Turkish cinema and reintroducing them to contemporary viewers. This year, esteemed director Atıf Yılmaz’s 1987 masterpiece “Asiye Nasıl Kurtulur” (How to Save Asiye) will be restored by Atlas Post Production to be screened during the festival.

The entire program of the 39th Istanbul Film Festival will be announced in March 2020.