Turkish Culture Ministry to support 49 feature films this year

ISTANBUL

Veteran actress Türkan Şoray will receive 500,000 Turkish Liras to direct a film produced by his daughter.

During its first meeting of the year, Culture and Tourism Ministry’s General Directorate of Cinema has decided to give 22.2 million Turkish Liras in financial support to 49 local feature film projects in 2015. In the category for the first feature film of a director, 14 projects will be given 4.1 million liras, with 35 other films will be given the remaining 18.1 million liras.

The directorate’s biggest support will be given to two film projects in particular: “Hanife Bacı,” a project by Bilal Kalyoncu, who is known for his film “Ülkücüler” (Idealists) that focused on events before Turkey’s 1980 coup, and “Kaos” (Chaos), a project by Semir Aslanyürek who previously directed “Şellale” (Waterfall), a comedy set during the time of the 1960 coup. These two films will each be given 900,000 liras for production costs. Among the other films is a project titled “Eski Köye Yeni Adet” (New Tricks for Old Dogs), which will be directed by veteran actress Türkan Şoray and produced by her daughter.

Şoray’s project will be provided with 500,000 liras from the ministry. A total of 332 feature films between 2005 and 2014 have been given a total of around 8 million liras per year, said Culture and Tourism Minister Ömer Çelik in a written statement. “These films have made great contributions to the sector. The number of films and cinema audience figures have also greatly increased,” Çelik added.

Applications for funding in the categories of documentary, animation, short film, script and dialogue writing will be evaluated during a meeting this month, he also said.