Kurdish short film festival prepares for return to Batman

BATMAN – Anadolu Agency

A new generation of Kurdish filmmakers will be front and center next month when the Yılmaz Güney Kurdish Short Film Festival returns to the southeastern province of Batman. Hürriyet photo

A new generation of Kurdish filmmakers will be front and center next month when the Yılmaz Güney Kurdish Short Film Festival returns to the southeastern province of Batman.

“We are aiming to render the Yılmaz Güney Film Festival an address where cinematic language meets with the Kurdish language,” Batman Deputy Mayor Serhat Temel said at a press conference to promote the event, which is running from Sept. 13 to 17 this year.

“With this festival, we believe that Batman will become one of the centers of Kurdish cinema in the upcoming years. The winner of the contest will be given 7,000 Turkish Liras, while the winners of the second and third prize will be given 5,000 and 3,000 liras, respectively. The winner of the short film story category will receive production support worth 5,000 liras.”

Temel, who said the festival would continue this year to be an important film event for a new generation of Kurdish film-makers, also noted that feature films would be screened in four neighborhoods and two villages as part of the festival in addition to the entries under the main focus of short films.
 
Applications for the contest are being arranged by Batman Municipality and the Middle East Film Academy and will be accepted until Sept. 15, said Temel.

Deputy Mayor Gülistan Akel, Yılmaz Güney Theater Director Dicle Anter and Batman Arts and Culture Foundation member Barış Eviz also attended the press conference.