The Istanbul International Film Festival is the first and oldest international film festival in Turkey, organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts. It is held every year in April in movie theaters in Istanbul, Turkey. As mentioned in its regulations, the festival aims to encourage the development of cinema in Turkey and to promote films of quality in the Turkish cinema market.
Fatih Akin is a German film director, screenwriter and producer. He is of Turkish descent. He has won numerous awards for his films, including the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for his film Head-On (2004), Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival for his film The Edge of Heaven (2007), and the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film for his film In the Fade (2017).
Yeşilçam is the sobriquet that refers to the Turkish film art and industry. It is an important part of Turkish culture, and has flourished over the years, delivering entertainment to audiences in Turkey, expatriates across Europe, and more recently prospering in the Arab world and in rare cases, the United States. The first film exhibited in the Ottoman Empire was the Lumière Brothers' 1895 film, L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat, which was shown in Istanbul in 1896. The first Turkish-made film was a documentary entitled Ayastefanos'taki Rus Abidesinin Yıkılışı, directed by Fuat Uzkınay and completed in 1914. The first narrative film, Sedat Simavi's The Spy, was released in 1917. Turkey's first sound film was shown in 1931.
Ümit Ünal, is a film director, screenwriter and author. He is the scriptwriter for eight Turkish feature films including Teyzem (1986), Hayallerim, Askim ve Sen (1987). His first feature film as a director is 9 which won many awards in various film festivals and was the Official Turkish Entry for the 2003 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He wrote and directed seven feature films including Istanbul Tales, Ara, Gölgesizler (Shadowless), Ses and Nar.
Hülya Koçyiğit is a Turkish actress. A prominent female lead in the Turkish cinema, she received numerous awards at international film festivals, including the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival. Altogether, she has acted in some 180 films.
Destiny is a 2006 Turkish drama film, produced, written and directed by Zeki Demirkubuz, starring Vildan Atasever as a bar singer who is in love with a somewhat unstable criminal. The film, which went on nationwide general release across Turkey on November 17, 2006, won awards at film festivals in Antalya, Ankara, Nuremberg and Istanbul, including the Golden Orange for Best film. It is a prequel to Innocence (1997).
Semih Kaplanoğlu is a Turkish screenwriter, film director and producer.
On Board is a 1998 Turkish drama film, written and directed by Serdar Akar. The film is about four sailors who kidnap a prostitute, and went on to nationwide general release across Turkey on 4 December 1998. It won awards at film festivals in Ankara and Antalya, including the Golden Orange for Second Best Film. It was shot concurrently with A Madonna in Laleli, directed by Kudret Sabancı, and many of the main characters from the two films cross paths.
The 21st Ankara International Film Festival is a film festival held in Ankara, Turkey that ran from March 11 to 21, 2010.
Men on the Bridge is a 2009 Turkish drama film directed by Aslı Özge. The film, which tells about the young generation who lives in the suburbs of Istanbul and come to the center of the city to make a living, follows a rose seller, a taxi driver and a traffic police officer whose lives unknowingly intersect every day on the Bosporus Bridge in Istanbul. It "wowed the audience in last year's Locarno and London Turkish film festivals, and won Best Film awards at last year's Istanbul International and Golden Cocoon film festivals", according to Emrah Güler, writing in Turkish Daily News.
How is You? is a 2009 Turkish drama film directed by Özlem Akovalıgil about two groups of travelers as they travel to Europe from Istanbul.
10 to 11 is a 2009 Turkish drama film directed by Pelin Esmer.
Black Dogs Barking is a 2009 Turkish drama film, written, produced and directed by Mehmet Bahadır Er with co-director Maryna Gorbach, starring Cemal Toktaş as a naive young parking attendant who gets mixed up with the mob in pursuit of his dream of running his own car park. The film, which went on nationwide general release across Turkey on March 19, 2010, won awards at film festivals in Antalya and Ankara and its newcomer directors have been hailed as Turkey’s answer to Martin Scorsese, for their inventive shooting style and authentic ear for the city’s underground slang demonstrated in this their debut film.
Min Dît: The Children of Diyarbakır is a 2009 Kurdish drama film, written, produced and directed by German-based Kurdish filmmaker Miraz Bezar, based on a story co-written with Alevi-Kurdish journalist and short-story writer Evrim Alataş, about street children in the eastern Turkish city of Diyarbakır. The film, which went on nationwide general release across Turkey on April 2, 2010, was the first film from Turkey to feature the Kurdish language and won awards at film festivals in San Sebastian, where it premiered, Antalya and Istanbul.
The 22nd Ankara International Film Festival was a film festival held in Ankara, Turkey, which ran from March 17 to 27, 2011. Films were screened at Batı Movie Theater, Büyülü Fener Kızılay, Çankaya Municipality Contemporary Arts Center and the Goethe Institut Ankara, and the Street of Art events took place across the city. Polish filmmaker Jerzy Skolimowski was the guest of honor at the festival which included a retrospective of his work.
The Festival on Wheels is an annual film festival, organised by the Ankara Cinema Association based in Ankara, Turkey, which has been held since 1995. Its mission is to present outstanding examples of cinema to film enthusiasts in different cities around Turkey and to introduce Turkish cinema to the rest of the world.
Alphan Eşeli is a Turkish director, writer, film producer, and photographer. His directing work includes feature films, television series, commercials and music videos. Along with writing and directing, he is the co-founder of the IST International Arts & Culture Festival, Istanbul74 and 74NewYork.
Saadet Aksoy, also known as Saadet Işıl Aksoy is a Turkish-born actress, who received critical acclaim with her portrayal of Aska, a red-haired punk trumpet player in Italian actor-director Sergio Castellitto's film Twice Born, in which she co-starred with Penélope Cruz and Emile Hirsch. Christy Lemire described her as "the striking Saadet Aksoy" in her Twice Born review, and film critic David Rooney stated, "Saadet Aksoy brings a subdued fieriness to her scenes as a Bosnian woman." on The Hollywood Reporter. In his article on Variety, Boyd Van Hoeij wrote, "Turkish thesp Saadet Aksoy impresses in a supporting role as a spunky Yugoslav local." about her performance in Twice Born.
Nana Ekvtimishvili is a Georgian writer and director.
