Istanbul to host two-week film festival

ISTANBUL

What Richard Did.

The 32nd Istanbul Film Festival, organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), will begin on March 30. The festival will present two whole weeks full of film programs for cinephiles with over 200 films in 20 categories as well as panels, workshops and master classes with expert filmmakers.

This year, the festival features a wide spectrum of selections, from the new feature films of 2012 and 2013 to unforgettable classic films, masterpieces of master directors, films that premiered at Sundance in January and in Berlinale in February, documentaries and children’s films as well as movies vying for the Golden Tulip and FACE competitions.

The program includes a debut section titled “Stories of Women” in addition to “From Literature to the Silver Screen,” which returns after a long break. A special section, “Am I Not a Citizen?” in collaboration with the 13th Istanbul Biennial to start in September, and “Reality is a Miracle: Carlos Reygadas” will also be held.

The Istanbul Film Festival brings masterpieces of Turkish cinema to the silver screen in its “Special Screening: Turkish Classics Revisited” section, initiated six years ago under the sponsorship of Groupama. This year, a memorable melodrama “Vesikalı Yarim” (My Prostitute Love) by Lütfi Ö. Akad starring İzzet Günay and Türkan Şoray will be presented to the audience by Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University.

The opening ceremony of the festival will be held March 29 at the Lütfi Kırdar Convention and Exhibition Center. The festival’s Cinema Honorary Awards will be presented at the opening ceremony to actress Lale Belkıs, cinematographer Aytekin Çakmakçı, actor Ahmet Mekin and scriptwriter Ayşe Saşa for several years of great effort in Turkish cinema. Following the ceremony, the opening film of the festival, “I’m So Excited” by Pedro Almodovar, will be screened as part of the Akbank Galas events.

Master director Costa Gavras will also be presented with a Cinema Honorary Award before the screening of his latest film, “Capital.” The director will give a master class on the same day at Akbank Sanat.

The last Cinema Honorary Award of this year’s festival will be presented to Peter Weir, the head of the festival’s jury this year. The director will also give a master class on April 12 at Boğaziçi University.

International and national competitions

Competitors for the Istanbul Film Festival International Golden Tulip Competition include “Kelebeğin Rüyası” (The Butterfly’s Dream) , Aslı Özge’s “Hayatboyu” (Lifelong), Bruno Dumont’s “Camille Claudel,” Tony Krawitz’s “Dead Europe,” Yaron Zilberman’s “A Late Quartet,” Laurent Cantet’s “Foxfire,” Lenny Abrahamson’s “What Richard Did,” David Tosh Gitonga’s “Nairobi Half Life,” Gerbrand Bakker’s “It’s All So Quiet,” banned Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s “Closed Curtain,” Ziad Doueiri’s “The Attack,” Eva Neymann’s “House With A Turret”and Darezhan Omirbayev’s “Student.”

Films in the running for the National Competition of the Golden Tulip include two Turkish premieres and six world premieres: “Özür Dilerim”(Forgive Me) by Cemil Ağacıkoğlu, “Köksüz” (Nobody’s Home) by Deniz Akçay Katıksız, “Yozgat Blues” by Mahmut Fazıl Coşkun, “Saroyan Ülkesi” (Saroyanland) by Lusin Dink, “Kelebeğin Rüyası” (The Butterfly’s Dream) by Yılmaz Erdoğan, “Karnaval” by Can Kılcıoğlu, “Hayatboyu (Lifelong) by Aslı Özge, “Sen Aydınlatırsın Geceyi” (Thou Gild’st The Even) by Onur Ünlü, “Soğuk” (Cold) by Uğur Yücel and “Devir” (The Cycle) by Derviş Zaim.

Other events during the festival include special screenings, documentaries and the “new visions,” “midnight madness,” “mined zone,” “masters” and “kid’s menu” events. Screenings will be held at Six movie theaters in Atlas, Beyoğlu and the Pera Museum, City’s in Nişantaşı, Feriye in Ortaköy and Rexx in Kadıköy. The closing awards ceremony of the 32nd Istanbul Film Festival will be held on April 14 at Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall.