Countdown begins for Golden Orange Film Festival

ANTALYA

Antalya Mayor Menderes Türel (center) poses with the festival committee members at the press conference held at Yıldız Palace Theater Hall (below).

Turkey’s premier film festival will be back for its second half-century in just three months’ time, as the 51st Golden Orange Film Festival brings together stars and top-level cinema in Antalya between Oct. 10 and 18.

“Thanks to the support of Antalya’s people and cinema lovers, from 2006 to 2009, the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival Golden gained a select place among the world’s notable festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Sundance, Tokyo and New York. The festival has witnessed a significant portion of Turkish cinema, which is celebrating its 100th birthday this year. But it will be unjust to call keep it as a local festival,” Antalya Mayor Menderes Türel said at a recent press conference at Yıldız Palace in Istanbul, adding that their goal was to make the festival truly global.

The mayor said they had made a sponsorship contract with Turkish Airlines (THY). “We are collaborating with THY not as a sponsor firm but as a strategic partner.”

Speaking about the unpaid debts of last year’s festival, which was organized by former Mayor Mustafa Akaydın, Türel said the problems were unacceptable. “After taking office, I saw that the municipality had economic problems and many debts were unpaid. This is shameful for Antalya and we will compensate it and pay what is owed to the award winners as soon as possible,” he said.

Speaking during the press conference, festival director Elif Dağdeviren drew attention to the linkages between film and the site of the meeting, Yıldız Palace, noting that an 1886 work by the Lumiere Brothers that is considered to be the world’s oldest film was shown at the site on the order of Ottoman sultan Abdülhamid.

“The palace, where the first film was shown in this country, is now opening its door to launch the 51st International Golden Orange Film Festival,” she said.

About the festival

The 51st festival will be organized under the consultancy of a festival committee starting this year. The committee will consist of Istanbul Film Festival director Hülya Uçansu, producer Zeynep Özbatur Atakan and journalist and cinema writer Alin Taşçıyan. The festival’s national film section director will be Serap Engin, while the international film section director will be Nesim Bencoya.

This year’s honorary awards, meanwhile, will be presented to Nilüfer Aydan, Haldun Dormen and Tarık Dursun Kakınç.  

According to a new decision, national films, even if they have been shown in other national or international festivals, will be able to compete at the Golden Orange main competition this year, provided that have not previously won a best film award elsewhere.

Each edition of the festival will also henceforth focus on the cinema of a particular country, while officials will exert efforts to strengthen cultural and artistic ties between this country and Turkey.

This year’s country of choice will be Spain, with festival organizers preparing a screening list of contemporary Spanish films, as well as a retrospective for a Spanish director to be decided.