International Antalya Film Festival to kick off on Sept 29
ANTALYA
The 55th International Antalya Film Festival will be held between Sept. 29 and Oct. 5 this year, featuring 55 films.
Acclaimed Turkish director Ferzan Özpetek and actor and comedian Cem Yılmaz, who is celebrating his 20th year in cinema, will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award of this year’s festival.
The festival will be inaugurated with the Turkey premiere of “Everybody Knows,” while the Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi will attend the inauguration ceremony.
The honorary awards of the festival will be presented to Hungarian director Bela Tarr, Turkish actress Itır Esen and producer Ömer Vargı. The Turkish Cinema Industry Awards will also be presented at the festival starting from next year.
The Antalya Film Forum, which makes significant contributions to Turkish cinema, will continue bringing together producers and directors of 50 national projects with the world-famous professionals.
In the “Turkey Panorama” section, which was included in the festival program this year, Turkish films that received awards at national and international festivals will be shown.
Last year the “National” and “International” categories were combined in order to make Antalya one of the centers for the global cinema industry, to support the global expansion of Turkish cinema, and to introduce qualified films with high artistic value with the audience.
Record number of applications to film forum
The 5th Antalya Film Forum received more than 200 applications this year. Tarr will hold a film workshop with young people. Master classes with two Oscar-winning directors will also be organized as part of the festival.
Selections made from 84 applications from 26 countries including Turkey, Russia, China, Iran, Lebanon, Ukraine, Germany, the U.K., Ireland, Italy, Spain, Lithuania, Hungary, Brazil and Argentina were included in the competition and exhibition programs of the International Competition section.
Ten films, two national and eight international, will compete at the festival this year. The competition films, selected by the art director of the festival, Mike Downey, will include “Shoplifters” by Hirokazu Koreeda; “A-Twelve-Years-Night” by Alvaro Brechner; “Cold War” by Pawel Pawlikowski; “Capernaum” by Nadine Labaki; “Ayka” by Sergey Dvortsevoy; “Kailash” by Derek Doneen; “Birds of Passage” by Cristine Gallego and Ciro Guerra; “Three Faces” by Jafar Panahi; “Çınar” (Plane Tree) by Mustafa Karadeniz; “Güven” (Trust) by Sefa Öztürk Çolak.
The competition jury is headed by Chinese director Vivian Qu and includes Italian scriptwriter Maurizio Braucci, producers and director Calin Peter Netzer, Doha Tribeca Film Festival culture and social content director Fatma El Remaihi and Turkish actress Belçim Bilgin.
As a traditional of the festival, the cortege will gather the people of Antalya with several local and foreign selected guests this year. Starting from the Glass Pyramid, the cortege will continue through Yüzüncü Yıl, Anafartalar (Güllük) Street, Cumhuriyet Square, Işıklar Street and end at the Fevzi Çakmak Street.
Classical automobiles, cortege trucks, tour buses and a specially designed vehicle with festival theme will take place in the 6-km cortege. The cortege will be colored up with the festival band, DJ performance and mascots of famous film characters, and will bring a festival atmosphere to Antalya for two hours. After the cortege, the stars will go to the Glass Pyramid where the inauguration will take place.
The 55th International Film Festival’s venues will be Festival Valley, the Glass Pyramid and the Atatürk Culture Center (AKM).