Meetings on the Bridge Award winners announced

ISTANBUL

The 12th edition of the Meetings on the Bridge, organized within the scope of the 36th Istanbul Film Festival, was held between April 7 and 11 with the support of the Istanbul Development Agency.

The projects and films that received the Meetings on the Bridge awards were announced at a reception hosted by l’Institut Français Istanbul on April 11. 

A total of 14 film projects and six films in post-production from Turkey and neighboring countries Syria, Georgia, Greece and Azerbaijan were presented at the Meetings on the Bridge workshops this year. A total of 72 international film professionals had meetings with the directors and producers of the projects and films in the workshops and had the chance to network with decision makers from Turkey and its neighboring countries.

The closing reception started with speeches by Istanbul Film Festival Director Kerem Ayan; the head of the Meetings on the Bridge, Gülin Üstün; and Istanbul Development Agency specialist Yasemen Özlem Mailoğlu.

The Film Development Workshop’s international jury members Maria Drandaki (Homemade Films), Matthieu Darras (Torino Film Lab), Rémi Burah (Arte France), Riina Sildos (Amrion) and Zsuzsi Bankuti (The Match Factory) chose the award winning projects after having meetings with directors and producers of the projects.

The workshop’s award winning projects included the “Snow and The Bear” film’s director Selcen Ergun and producer Zeki Peynirci. The project received an award of 30,000 Turkish Liras.

The Film Development Workshop and the Neighbors Platform projects were all eligible for the 8,000-euro CNC Award this year. The award was presented to “The Translator” project’s director Anas Khalaf and its producer, Nicolas Leprêtre’e.  

The Melodika Sound Award was presented to the “A Prince from Outer Space: Zeki Müren” project’s director Beyza Boyacıoğlu and Selin Murat, the producer of the project. 

Producer Armağan Lale and director Ceylan Özgün Özçelik of the project “18+” received the GeniusPark Special Effects Award.
 
The Mediterranean Film Institute’s (MFI) Script and Development Workshop Award, which comprises four stages, was presented to director Ali Özgür Baltaoğlu and producer Çağdaş Öztürk for their project “Hangnail.” The director and scriptwriter of the project will participate in the script workshops, two of which will be in the Nisyros and Samos Islands of Greece this year and another two which will be online.

This year, for the first time, the Transylvania Pitch Stop Award was given to producer Zeki Peynirci and Ergun.

The Special Mention Award of Film Development Workshop was presented to director Nisan Dağ and producers Müge Özen, Jessica Caldwell and Yağmur Ünal for their project “When I’m Done Dying.”

This year, a new award for post-production was introduced for the first time to the projects from neighboring countries.
 
The Digiflame Post-Production Award, focusing on projects from the nearby countries, was presented to Teymur Hajiyev, the producer and Elvin Adıgozel, the director of “Yashar.” 

In addition, four films from Turkey were also selected for the “Work in Progress,” which aims to support feature film documentaries in their post-production stage. 

The jury members of the Work in Progress, Lorenzo Esposito, Konstantina Stavrianou and Hedi Zardi chose the award winning films in post-production after watching the films at private screenings and at one-to-one meetings held with filmmakers. 

This year, there were 11 cinema talks, three screenings and three case studies at the Meetings on the Bridge.