Golden Boll Film Festival kicks off 

ADANA

The 27th International Golden Boll Film Festival, organized by the Adana Metropolitan Municipality, kicked off in the southern province of Adana with a film screening on Sept. 14.      

In this year’s collaboration with the Başka Sinema Ayvalık Film Festival and Istanbul Film Festival, the films to be screened as part of the Golden Boll Film Festival can also be watched online at filmonline.iksv.org.

Tickets for the festival films are on sale every day between 10.30 a.m. and 10.30 p.m. in which people will have the privilege to watch movies for up to 30 hours online.

One of Turkey’s most prestigious cinematic events, the 27th annual festival, is being held at the Adana Metropolitan Municipality Theater Building under special measures due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. The screening of the films in the venue is free of charge. 

This year a total of 10 films compete in the festival’s National Feature Film category. The films will get evaluated by a jury headed by Füsun Demirel and its members Feza Çaldıran, Damla Sönmez, Seren Yüce, Can Atilla, Ayfer Tunç, and Sevin Okyay.

The national feature films in the competition include Anıl Gelberi’s “Plaza,” Barış Hancıoğulları’s “Yeniden Leyla,” Ercan Kesal’s “Nasipse Adayız” (You Know Him), Fatih Özcan’s “Mavzer” (Mauser), Faysal Soysal’s “Ceviz Ağacı” (Silenced Tree), Gökçin Dokumacı’s “Kuyudaki Taş” (The Stone in the Well), Hacı Orman’s “Körleşme” (Going Blind), Leyla Yılmaz’s “Bilmemek” (Not Knowing), Onur Ünlü’s “Topal Şükran’ın Maceraları” (The Adventures of Şükran the Cripple) and Umut Evirgen’s “Ben Bir Denizim” (I am the Sea).

In the festival’s National Student Short Film Competition, 22 films will be shown in four categories. 

Veteran actors Nur Sürer and Rutkay Aziz will be receiving the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award. The Orhan Kemal Labor Award will go to Orhan Oğuz this year.

İsmail Timuçin, an official from the festival’s executive board, told the state-run Anadolu Agency that the event has started on a bitter note due to the outbreak.

Stating that the festival took place without guests as part of the measures taken against the virus, he said cinephiles could view film screenings in special gondolas on Adana’s Seyhan River.      

As the jury could not arrive in the city and they have been reviewing the films in Istanbul, Timuçin said the award ceremony will commence on the last day of the festival on Sept. 20.