Istanbul's leading art body to screen national competition films in July

The Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV) is behind the most influential film festival - it takes place in Turkey every year in April. In 2020, the Istanbul Film Festival had to be postponed given the lockdown measures that were put in place due to the coronavirus outbreak.

IKSV has recently announced that the 39th Istanbul Film Festival will be held over the dates of October 9 to 20, along with Filmekimi, another film festival that normally takes place in the fall. As for the National Competition and the National Short Film Competition, they will be held between July 17 and 28.

The twelve shorts and eleven feature films participating are to be offered online for a modest fee, screened at filmonline.iksv.org for Turkish audiences. In a festival first, they will also be screened live in the garden of the Sakip Sabanci Museum (SSM). The award-winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony that will be held at the museum on Tuesday, 28 July.

Every evening at 9pm, with the participation of the film crews, one short and one feature film will be screened at SSM. The tickets, which have proved popular, have almost already sold out. The beautiful setting of the venue is part of the reason, but social distancing rules have meant that there are only a limited number of seats available. Remaining tickets can be found at Biletix. The films are in Turkish with no subtitles provided.

According to a statement by the festival, “Both competitions are within the Turkish Cinema section of the festival, organised under the sponsorship of Anadolu Efes for the 31st time.”

The National Competition jury, who will be distributing Golden Tulip Awards in nine categories, will be led by director Mahmut Fazıl Coskun. The jury is otherwise made up of producer Sevil Demirci, actor Berk Hakman, cinematographer Deniz Eyuboglu Aydın, and the writer Hakan Bicakci.

The Golden Tulip Awards will be handed under the categories of Best Film, Best Director, Special Prize of the Jury, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematographer, Best Editing, and Best Original Music.

According to IKSV’s statement, the film picking up the Golden Tulip for Best Film, will be awarded with 200,000 TL ($29,096), while the winner of the jury’s Special Prize - in memory of Onat Kutlar - will be awarded 50,000 TL ($7,274.01). The prizes for Best Actress and Best Actor will be 10,000 TL ($1,454.80) each. Best Director will be awarded 50,000 TL ($7,274.01) given by Anadolu Efes. Best Original Music will be awarded 5,000 TL ($727.40) by LU Records, and Best Screenplay 10,000 TL ($1,454.80) by Aksolotl.

The Istanbul Film Festival presents the Seyfi Teoman Best Debut Film Prize in memoriam of director and producer Seyfi Teoman, who passed away in 2012. The winning director will be presented 30,000 TL ($4,364.40) by CMYLMZ Fikirsanat.

Six debut feature films selected from the eleven competing in the competition, are eligible for the prize. The jury panel that makes up the Seyfi Teoman Best Debut Film Prize, consists of director Emine Emel Balci, actor Ozgur Emre Yıldırım, and musician Ahmet K. Bilgic.

As for the National Short Film Competition, directors Konstantina Kotzamani and Gokalp Gonen, as well as actor Boran Kuzum, are on the jury. The Best Short Film will be awarded with 5,000 TL ($727.40) and will be sponsored by Anadolu Efes. Twelve short films will vie for the prize.