Women’s film festival in Istanbul to focus on ‘solidarity’

ISTANBUL

The 14th edition of the International Filmmor Women’s Film Festival on Wheels, which aims to increase the involvement of women in cinema and the media, will be held between March 12 and 20 in Istanbul. 

The theme of this year’s festival is “Women’s Solidarity Keeps Women Alive,” said festival consultant Alin Taşçıyan at a press conference on March 3. 

“Some 300 films applied to be part of the festival this year. We wanted to include films from Turkey and abroad in the festival program and we watched these films for many days and nights. It was really hard to leave out some of these films from the program. Women are making very good films and we selected them not just because they are made by women but they are very good films,” Taşçıyan said.

This year the festival will screen over 70 films in 30 languages, as well as featuring workshops, panels and talks. 

As part of the festival, the “Purple Camera Promising Female Filmmaker Award” and the “Golden Okra Award,” which challenges traditional perceptions of women in popular Turkish cinema, will also be presented. 

After Istanbul, the festival move on to Adana, Hatay, Van, İzmir, Bodrum and Mardin. 

Saskia Diesing’s “Nena,” Violeta Barca Fontana’s “Color Thief,” Darine Hotait’s “I Say Dust,” Vivian Papageorgiou’s “Inner Land,” Remedios Crespo’s “Flexibility,” Silvana Ceschi and Arnulfo González’s “Irına in Wonderland,” Anna Muylaert’s “Second Mother,” Kim Longinotto’s “Dreamcatcher,” Natalya Kudryashova’s “Piooner Heroes” and Nayla al Khaja’s “The Neighbor” are among the films due to be screened.