‘Blue Bicycle’ wins big at Antalya Film Festival

ANTALYA

The 53rd Antalya International Film Festival ended on Oct. 23 with a closing gala and the traditional Golden Orange award ceremony held at the EXPO 2016 Antalya Congress Center. 

Speaking at the ceremony, Antalya Mayor Menderes Türel said during the festival that Turkish and foreign competition films were watched by thousands of cinema lovers and hundreds of cinema professionals that came together during the festival week. 

The Lifetime Achievement Awards of the festival were presented to U.S. actor Harvey Keitel and Iranian director Asghar Farhadi. 

In the National Competition category, “Mavi Bisiklet” (Blue Bicycle) received the Best Film, Best Script and the Best Director awards. Ümit Köreken, the producer, scriptwriter and director of “Blue Bicycle” said he worked on the film with his wife, Nursel Çetin Köreken, for six years. “I want to dedicate this award to the children who are in need of a bicycle, a pair of shoes and a warm home,” he said. 

Burak Korucu, the composer of the music of film “Babamın Kanatları” (My Father’s Wings), won the National Competition Audience Award. Menderes Samancılar won the Best Actor Award for his role in the same film. 
The head of the festival’s National Competition Jury, director, scriptwriter and producer Semih Kaplanoğlu, said they watched 12 films in the competition and eight of them were the debut features of promising young directors. “We saw extraordinary acting skills in our cinema,” he said. 

“Mavi Bisiklet” also won a 100,000-Turkish Lira award.

In the film, 11-year-old Ali is an introverted boy whose father died years ago. Ali works at an auto repair shop during his summer holiday to support his family but dreams of buying a blue bike. However, something unexpected happens on the first day of school and he gives up buying the blue bicycle and assumes the risk of sacrificing all the money he saved.

International Competition 

At the 53rd Antalya Film Festival International Competition, the Best Actor Award was given to Tamer Nafar for his role in “Junction 48,” while the Best Actress Award was awarded to Ecem Uzun, who won the award in both the national and international film competition categories for her role in “Tereddüt” (Clair Obscur), directed by Yeşim Ustaoğlu, who also won the Best Director Award.

“Clair Obscur” is the psychological dance of two women who are deprived of and distanced from their natural right to mature and discover themselves, to love and be loved, and to sustain a real relationship of their choosing, according to the official website of the film. The social cost of their psychological wounds reverberates from micro to macro levels throughout society, rotting it from within.
 
A Turkey-Poland-France co-production, the film won a 50,000 euro-award. 

The Behlül Dal special jury award was given to Mete Gümürhan’s documentary “Genç Pehlivanlar” (Young Wrestlers).

The Audience Award went to the Spanish film “The Open Door,” which also won best screenplay, for scripter Marina Seresesky. A special jury award was given to the Georgian Rusudan Glurjidze’s “House of Others.”
The Sümer Tilmaç Antalya Film Support Fund Award, which provides 100,000 liras in support to a film project, was given to the film script of Abdurrahman Öner’s “Ay Dede.”