Incentives for Turkish cinema doubled

ANKARA – Anadolu Agency

The Culture and Tourism Ministry has doubled its incentives for Turkish cinema compared to last year, paying out nearly 27 million Turkish Liras to new film projects.

In recent years, cinema has become a significant tool boosting Turkey’s recognition in the international arena. This led the ministry to double the incentives for the Turkish cinema sector in order to increase the quality and number of Turkish productions that frequently return from the world leading film festivals such as Cannes, Berlin and Rotterdam with awards.

The ministry formed the Cinema General Directorate three years ago for Turkish cinema to increase its competitive power against international productions and become a brand.

Filmmakers have so far applied to the directorate with 951 projects in various categories including documentary, short film, animation, scriptwriting and dialogue writing. Among them, 89 documentary film projects received 3,185 liras; 55 short film projects received 472,250 liras; 54 script and dialogue writing applications received 472,500 liras and 14 animation projects received 140,000 liras in support.
The ministry also provided 10 million liras to 100 events, 64 in Turkey and 36 abroad, in 2014.

Success of Turkish productions

In 2014, during which the centenary of Turkish cinema is being celebrated in Turkey and abroad, the grand award of the Cannes Film Festival went to “Kış Uykusu” (Winter Sleep), directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan with contributions from the ministry. Ceylan was the second Turk to win the grand award at Cannes after the legendary Yılmaz Güney did so 32 years ago. The film also won the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) award at the festival.

At the 15th Moondance Film Festival, organized in the Colorado city of Boulder, another ministry-supported project, “Kelebeğin Rüyası” (The Butterfly’s Dream), swept the awards. Directed by Yılmaz Erdoğan, the film won the best film award. Also, its music by Rahman Altın won the best film score award, and actor Mert Fırat won the best actor award at the festival.

Kaan Müjdeci’s first feature film, “Sivas,” which was made with ministry support, received the jury special prize at the 71st Venice Film Festival. The leading actor of the film, Doğan İzni, also won the Premio Bastio D’Oro 2014-best actor award from international cinema writers.

“Annemin Şarkısı” (The Song of the Mother), another film by Erol Mintaş, joined the 20th Sarajevo Film Festival and won the best film award while actor Feyyaz Duman won the best actor award at the festival.

The success of Turkish cinema was maintained at the 59th Seminci Valladolid Film Festival in Spain. Turkish films were the guest of honor at the festival, while Kutluğ Ataman’s “Kuzu” (The Lamb), won the best script and best director of photography awards at the festival. At the same time, the child actors in the film were given special prizes.