Audrey Tautou guest of Antalya Film Festival

ISTANBUL

The 53rd International Antalya Film Festival won’t be short of any star power when it begins on Oct. 16, as the guest of honor at this year’s edition of Turkey’s premier film festival will be French actress Audrey Tautou.

Tautou will meet festival-goers during the screening of “Eternity” by Vietnamese-born French director Tran Anh Hung. 

Hung, who won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for his film “Cyclo” in 1995, adapted “Eternity” from Alice Ferney’s book “The Elegance of Widows,” which features the stories of women in a family at the end of the 19th century.

The opening ceremony of the festival will be organized on Oct. 16, during which time Tautou, who gained worldwide fame for her work in the eclectic romantic comedy “Amelie,” will be presented with the Golden Orange Honorary Award. 

Tautou’s star shined thanks to Tonie Marshall’s 1999 film “Venus Beauty Institute.” She won both critical acclaim and won the César Award for Most Promising Actress as well as the Lumières Award for Most Promising Actress for her role in this film in 2000. 

Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s “Amelie” was a nominee for the Academy Award in five categories and became an international phenomenon. The film also won best film at the European Film Awards, four César Awards and two BAFTA Awards. 

Jeunet and Tautou reached a similar success three years later with the film “A Very Long Engagement,” a war drama epic, in 2004. 

In 2005, Tautou starred in her first full Hollywood production with Tom Hanks in the film version of Dan Brown’s best-selling novel “The Da Vinci Code,” directed by Ron Howard. She has also appeared in the biopic film “Coco Chanel” and “Dirty Pretty Things,” which relates the tribulations of immigrants in London.
Another guest of this year’s festival will be French actor Gerard Depardieu. 

The Golden Orange Labor Awards will be presented this year to dubbing artists Altan Karındaş and Toron Karacaoğlu, while the honorary award will be presented to director Feyzi Tuna and actor Yılmaz Gruda. The lifetime achievement award will be presented to veteran singer Emel Sayın.

The festival’s traditional cortege will be held on Oct. 15. 

The Glass Pyramid Congress and the Fair Center in the southern province will also turn into a festival center, while the King Road between the pyramid and the Antalya Culture Center will become a festival road. There will also be talks, signing days with actors, concerts, workshops, exhibition and social responsibility stands during the event, which runs until Oct. 23.