İzmir to host Int’l Film and Music Festival

ISTANBUL

The third İzmir International Film and Music Festival, organized with the theme of the relationship between cinema and music since its first year, will start on June 16. The event focuses on cinema-music relations in order to encourage the use of original music in films.

In the opening ceremony of the event, to be held at the historical Elhamra Stage, The Country Trilogy Jazz Project, which was composed on 11 scenes selected from director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s films, will make its world premiere. In the concert, the composer of the project, pianist Yiğit Özatalay, will be accompanied by Barış Ertürk on saxophone and Mustafa Kemal Emirel on drums.

Organized under the direction of Vecdi Sayar, the festival will feature 100 feature films, 20 short films, question-answer sessions after the screenings, concerts, recitals and interviews with masters.

This year, the festival will also organize the International Film Competition beside its National Film Competition. The films in the International Competition selection consists of productions focusing on the world of music and dance and the lives of musicians. Films will compete for the festival’s Crystal Flamingo Award.

While actress and musician Zuhal Olcay leads the jury in the national film competition, Hungarian director Krisztina Goda leads the jury of the international competition.

The 10 films that were finalists of the Music-Themed Short Film Project Competition held last year will be screened at the festival, too.

One of the special parts of the festival this year will be a section which consists of films dealing with migration and migrant problems. A conversation session will also be organized in cooperation with the U.N. Refugee Agency.

The festival’s Honorary Awards, given to the masters who have contributed to Turkish cinema, will be presented to Olcay, who has made admirable performances in countless films and theater plays and fascinated the audience with his voice, musician Erkan Oğur and Grégoire Hetzel, one of the leading composers of French cinema, and István Szabó, the Oscar-winning great master of Hungarian cinema. Olcay will also give a concert at the Ahmed Adnan Saygun Arts Center as part of the festival. The annual Intercultural Art Achievement Award will be given to Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi.

The festival will be end on June 21 at an award ceremony to be held at İstinye Park Teras Renk Theater. All screenings at the festival will be free of charge.