Golden Orange to be low-cost this year

ANTALYA - Anadolu Agency

Iranian director Asghar Farhadi will be the honorary guest of the 50th Antalya Golde Orange Film Festival. AA photo

Financial issues are forcing organizers of the International Golden Orange Film Festival to vow more “modest” ceremonies for the event’s golden anniversary this year, but Turkey’s premier film event will still provide a fantastic platform for up-and-coming talent.

Most of this year’s competition films are from young filmmakers, said Antalya Foundation for Culture and Arts (AKSAV) head Tufan Dağıstanlı. “Our goal is to bring Turkish cinema back to life with fresh blood. We want to support Turkish cinema and keep this art alive with new films and new directors.”

The festival’s 50th anniversary will be held this year in the southern province between Oct. 4 and 11 in the southern province of Antalya, albeit with less glitz due to financial troubles at both AKSAV and Antalya Metropolitan Municipality.

Dağıstanlı said they were preparing for the festival with a team of 250 people and a budget of nearly 6 million Turkish Liras, but added that because of the limited budget, some public concerts and corteges in Burdur and Isparta had been canceled.

Still, he said they would do their best to ensure the Antalya cortege, which has become a symbol of the festival, would be organized like a carnival.

“I want all organizations in Antalya to join this cortege. This year we plan to work with animation teams of hotels. The EXPO 2016 Antalya Agency will join the cortege with their cars decorated within the theme of children and flower. The Fire of Anatolia will also join the cortege as well as 30 bikers from the Harley Davidson Club. We want to organize as rich cortege as possible,” he said.

Film contests

The pre-selection jury for the festival evaluated 62 films for the National Feature Film Contest. The films set to compete for the Golden Orange Award will include Ferit Karahan’s “Cennetten Kovulmak” (The Fall From Heaven), Ali Kemal Çınar’s “Kısa Film” (Short Film), Ramin Martin’s “Kusursuzlar” (Flawless Life), Serdar Temizkan’s “Kutsal Bir Gün” (A Holy Day), Zeynep Dadak and Merve Kayan’s “Mavi Dalga” (Blue Wave), Ömer Leventoğlu’s “Mavi Ring” (Blue Ring), Atalay Taşdikan’s “Meryem,” Mehmet Bahadır Er and Maryna Er Gorbach’s “Sev Beni” (Love Me), Alpgiray Uğurlu’s “Üvertür” (Prelude) and Nihat Seven’s “Uzun Yol” (The Long Way Home).

Veteran Turkish actress Türkan Şoray, the “sultan” of Turkish cinema, will head the festival’s national jury, which will also include Greek composer and pianist Eleni Karaindrou. Renowned directors Reis Çelik and Ümit Ünal will also take charge of the grand jury at the festival.

In the International Feature Film Contest, 10 films will compete, including a Turkish film. The films are Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit’s “36,” Corneliu Porumboiu’s “When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism,” Tomasz Wasilewski’s “Floating Skyscrapers,” Tom Shoval’s “Youth,” Hala Lotfy’s “Coming Forth by Day,” David Perrault’s “Our Heroes Died Tonight,” Barbara Albert’s “The Dead and The Living,” Ari Folman’s “The Congress” and Ramon Zürcher’s “The Strange Little Cat.”

Also, Deniz Akçay’s film “Köksüz” (Nobody’s Home), which competed for the Lion of the Future Award of the Venice Film Festival, will compete at the Golden Orange’s International Feature Film Contest.
This year 20 short films and 15 documentaries will compete at the festival. At the same time, a documentary film produced by Nebil Özgenturk was produced for the festival’s 50th anniversary. The film covers many historical areas and venues, and also includes interviews with writers and journalists on different eras of the festival. ,

Iranian director honorary guest

Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, meanwhile, will be the honorary guest of the festival. Farhadi will participate in a screening of “Le Passé,” his new film, for which Berenice Bejo won a best leading actress award at the Cannes Film Festival.

The gala of the movie will host Farhadi and leading actor Ali Mosaffa. Farhadi will meet with audiences after the screening of the movie, which is about an Iranian man.