I. INTERNATIONAL BOSPHORUS FILM FESTIVAL BEGAN
The 1st International Bosphorus Film Festival to be kicked off in Istanbul with the slogan “Anyone Can Make a Film” and to continue from 14 to 30 November began with the opening ceremony at the Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall on Thursday evening on November 14, 2013.
Cinema history scholars consider November 14, 1914 the beginning of Turkish cinema. November 30, 2009 is the date when Ahmet Uluçay died. Setting the festival date in consideration of these two important events, the festival team aims to open up new possibilities and bring new perspectives for the Turkish cinema, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary.
60 short films compete at the festival, which accepts films with ethical, aesthetic and technical integrity. The International Bosphorus Film Festival award will go to short filmmakers this year. The festival’s 50,000 TL worth of grand award is dedicated to Ahmet Uluçay, the most original figure in Turkish cinema, who died on November 30, 2009. The Ahmet Uluçay Grand Jury Prize is decided by a jury chaired by Demet Akbağ that contains the household figures of the cinema world, namely Osman Sinav, Ömer Vargı, Peggy Rajski and Mohydeen Izzat Quandour. While Yiğit Şardan, Yüksel Aksu, Hasan Özgen, Uğur İçbak, Ahmet Mümtaz Taylan, İsmail Güneş, İhsan Kabil, Burçak Evren, Ezel Akay, Ayhan Ergürsel, Murat Aslan, Murat Şenürkmez, Ferat Bilgin and Kamil Koç make up the short film jury.
The opening ceremony, which took place at 8pm at the Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall, began with the speech of Ahmet Uluçay’s son İdris Uluçay, followed by the speeches of protocol members and the screening of the competing films. The ceremony ended with the screening of the 35-minute Nigerian film Demain. Many well-known directors, actors, producers and screenwriters attended the opening night.
Special Remembrance Day for Ahmet Uluçay
November 30, 2009 is the death anniversary of Ahmet Uluçay. After a memorial service for Uluçay at his grave in Kütahya/Tavşanlı on the anniversary of his death, his magnificent film “Karpuz Kabuğundan Gemiler Yapmak” will be shown to the audience.
Festival Program
The festival program consists of a selection of films and events. The selection of movies covers eight areas. The festival movies consist of short fiction films, documentaries and TESİYAP supported movies. TESİYAP supported movies comprise of 20 works that were previously supported by TESİYAP. Ahmet Uluçay’s selection includes 8 short movies and “Karpuz Kabuğundan Gemiler Yapmak.” One of the most important selections of the festival, “4 Directors from Tradition to the Future” is based on the motto “Those without tradition have no future”. The selection covers directors such as Lütfi Ö. Akad and Ömer Kavur who established the norms of the Turkish cinema as well as films by Yılmaz Erdoğan and Yüksel Aksu that catapulted the Turkish cinema back into the domain of uniqueness and originality. Another important selection is called “From Short to Long”. The selection contains a compilation of short movies, documentaries and feature films by Mehmet Bahadır Er and Mahmut Fazıl Coşkun. The special program contains “A Portait: Ethem Özgüven””, this year’s guest country is Nigeria and the competition has a platform for amateurs called “Tell Me About your Family”. The selection of short movies consists of short movies selected from NYU Tisch School Of Arts and those from the Kurzfilmtage – Oberhausen Festival. The selection of documentaries contains documentaries by the Documentary Filmmakers Association and previews. The “Colors of Asia” selection, which consists of films selected by İhsan Kabil, features 26 films from Azerbaijan, Iran, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Egypt, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
In addition to the film screenings, there will be conversations and discussions about short films and documentaries at the Tarık Zafer Tunaya Cultural Centre on 25-30 November and also Kamil Koç will hold a talk at Atlas Cinema on 26 November 2013 on the TESİYAP Fund and how projects should be selected and presented for the coming years. Workshops will be held at İstanbul Ticaret University from 20 to 29 November and a cinema symposium on “Cinema and Criticism” will be held at İstanbul Ticaret University from 18 to 22 November. At the festival, an academic at İstanbul Ticaret University, Associate Professor Rıdvan Şentürk, will have a new edition of his book “Post-Modern Chaos and Cinema”, newly printed for TESİYAP, introduced to the cinema audience.
Festival Venues and Festival Events
Film screenings will take place at the Atlas Cinema, Cine Majestic Cinema, Tarık Zafer Tunaya Cultural Center and Bağlarbaşı Cultural Center. Workshops and symposiums are held at İstanbul Ticaret University while intellectual conversations and discussions are held at the Tarık Zafer Tunaya Cultural Center and Atlas Cinema.
In the mean time, festival events and movie screenings that will last for 15 days will be free for all.