Countdown starts for ‘Oscars of cartoons’

Deniz Çınar MUĞLA - Hürriyet Daily News

The international committee, which gather in Bodrum, will evaluate 300 cartoons from 43 countries, which had already been chosen by the pre-selection committee. The winner of the competition will be announced on June 17.

Leading cartoonists from Turkey and around the world gathered for the 31st Aydın Doğan International Cartoon Competition in Bodrum yesterday in excitement to choose this year’s winners.

Prominent people of the cartoon world have taken their seats in the selection committee, headed by Liza Donnelly, who is an award-winning cartoonist and writer for the New Yorker Magazine and Forbes. The jury also consists of famous figures: Ercan Akyol, Latif Demirci, Selçuk Demirel, Piyale Madra and Tan Oral from Turkey, and Dokhshid Ghodratipour from Iran, Moacir Knorr Gutterres from Brazil, Catherine Meurisse from France, Lichuan Xia from China and Anita O’Brien from London, who is the director of the Cartoon Museum in London.

The Aydın Doğan Foundation Executive Board Chair Candan Fetvacı said they feel the same excitement while organizing the contest every year, which gives people an opportunity to look at the problems of humans and the world from different perspectives. “We are also excited when we look at the cartoons [submitted to the contest],” Fetvacı said, adding this year, 814 cartoonists from 70 countries joined the competition with 2,556 pieces. “When people look at problems from a distance through a third eye, they make better evaluations and decisions,” she said, highlighting the educational role of the competition.  It is very important that all international members of the jury have been familiar with the competition for a long time, Fetvacı said, adding Chinese artist Xia told her the contest has been influencing the works of cartoonists in China. The success of the competition is lasting thanks to the support from the Doğan Group and the foundation, she said.

300 cartoons from 43 countries

The international committee is set to evaluate 300 cartoons from 43 countries, which had already been chosen by the pre-selection committee. The winner is set to be announced on June 17.

After seeing the cartoons for the first time, the selection committee head, Donelly, said it would be hard to select the winner.

“There is a lot of good art here. So many different styles, some of them very serious ideas and some of them with lighter ideas. It is going to be difficult,” she said.

“It is very important the cartoon has a universal language,” Brazilian artist Gutterres said shortly after the first evaluation, hinting about his priorities while evaluating and voting for the cartoons.
London Cartoon Museum director O’Brien said cartoonists have many opportunities in Turkey, along with the Aydın Doğan Cartoon Competition.

“My sense when we arrived was cartooning must be a strong tradition in Turkey. There are so many satirical magazines, many more than in the U.K. I feel people really love this art form in Turkey,” she said.