Japanese film festival to host Turkish movies

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

The romantic movies are the most popular choices in the Far East, says FİYAB President Galip Gültekin. Love Loves Coincidences is among those movies, which attracts audiences.

Japanese movie-goers will have a chance to sample some of the best in recent Turkish cinema, as a number of Turkish movies will be screened during the 25th Tokyo International Film Festival later this month.

“Turkish cinema has attracted a lot of attention from the Middle East. We see Tokyo as an important market, and we think it is very important in terms of contributing to the development of cinema,” Film Producers’ Professional Association (FİYAB) President Galip Gültekin recently told Anatolia news agency.
Turkey will operate a desk during this year’s edition of the festival, he said, adding that the country would attend the Tokyo event for the first time. “Our aim is to create a base to sell TV series and films to Japan and also make joint productions with Japan,” Gültekin said, adding that cooperation between the two countries was very important.

Far East loves romantic movies

Gültekin said his organization had been encountered by the huge interest that festival audiences in Hungary and Shanghai had directed toward Turkish cinema. “In the Far East, romantic movies are the most popular. In Shanghai they wanted to see ‘My Father and My Son.’ Movies such as ‘Five Minarets in New York,’ ‘Love Loves Coincidences’ attracted a lot of interest from the audience,” he said.

Turkish movies have won very prestigious awards abroad, the FİYAB president said, adding that many people were now following the Turkish movie sector.

Turkish cinema is now enjoying great development due to the support the sector has received from the Culture and Tourism Ministry, Gültekin said, adding that there were many high-quality works in the country’s movie industry.

Within time, however, Turkish cinema will be in an even better situation, Gültekin said. “Today, we see that European and American cinema are doing great but, on the other hand, they do everything in terms of presentation. They spend so much money on this.” Last year, a total of 817,000 people attended the Tokyo Film Festival. This year’s edition will run from Oct. 23 to 25.