THE 4TH INTERNATIONAL BOSPHORUS FILM FESTIVAL BEGAN
The 4th International Bosphorus Film Festival began with the screening of the film “Houston, We Have a Problem!” directed by the Slovenian director Ziga Virc.
Organised by the International Bosphorus Cinema Association and the Istanbul Media Academy with Anadolu Agency (AA) acting as the global communications partner, the festival’s opening ceremony took place at Haliç Congress Center in Eyüp Hall.
The Festival Chairman, Ogün Şanlıer, who made the opening speech stated that the initial 3 years of the festival passed very quickly and that they expect the festival to continue further.
Şanlıer, who stated that Turkey had a very hard year also added as follows: “We rolled up our sleeves for the film festival without the slightest doubt about whether we will be able to realize it or not, and said lets continue from where we left. Last year we gave a promise to the cinema lovers for making the National Feature Film Contest this year. Thanks God, we kept our word. We started the contest this year, and received 68 film applications. 8 of our films were qualified for the finals.”
Production support platform
Şanlıer highlighted that one of the most important subjects in scope of the festival is the production support platform, and added as follows to give more information:
“We formed a production support platform this year through the festival partnership contract that we executed with the Turkish Radio and Television Association (“TRT”). We announced it to whole Turkish cinema society, our film industry, our producers, directors and all other people, and received 65 project applications. 10 of the these films were qualified to the finals. And these, too, will present their projects after receiving a 2-day project support training and project presentation training.”
Also, the Festival Coordinator, Bülent Turgut, stated that one of the distinctive features of the festival was the film selections.
Turgut stressed that they prepared the selections after a long work, and added: “We left behind pretty nice films. Besides the films to compete, we also prepared beautiful selections. We have events, panels and workshops. Especially by keeping the amateur spirit alive, we did our best as a young festival that operates and tries to become professional. We hope you enjoy it.”
Deputy Head of TRT Television Department, Halid Şimşek, stated on the other hand that 3 years ago they have started a journey with the question “How can we channel TV facilities into cinema?”, and that they have the TRT TV Films Projects started.
Şimşek highlighted that they actualized 33 films in scope of the project, and added: “The next stage of this was the co-productions and festivals. And we started taking this path as of last year. We also had a partnership in Antalya Film Festival which is an another distinguished festival. We had a corporate business partnership in Sarajevo Film Festival, and finally we came to Bosphorus Film Festival.”
“We are proud to be a sympathizer of Bosphorus Film Festival”
Şimşek explained that the contribution they make to cinema excites them highly, and added:
“This time we have another excitement. Because there is a quite new, quite young, and a quite professional team as well as an assertive organization is in question. Therefore, there is an organization in question which aims to support development of Turkish cinema. As TRT, our goal too is to support development of Turkish cinema. When all these reasons are combined together, our excitement increases incrementally. We are happy and proud to be the corporate business partner of, a part of, and -more than anything- a sympathizer of Bosphorus Film Festival.
In the same night, also when the films that will compete in the festival and the festival juries’ trailers were screened, the film by the Slovenian director Ziga Virc, ‘Houston, We Have A Problem!’ was screened as the opening film.
The film, screenplay of which was written by Ziga Virc and Bostjan Virc and which is 90 minutes in length reveals the legend of the billion-dollar agreement that was made by USA in 1960’s to purchase Yugoslavia’s secret space program and hidden from the whole world.
The festival which will bring many national and international films together with the cinema lovers, will host several Turkish and foreign people from the cinema industry through the panels, interviews and workshops.
The festival will end with the closing night and the award ceremony to be held on November 18th at Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall.