Istanbul Film Festival reveals competition titles

Organised by the Istanbul Foundation of Culture and Arts, the festival will feature more than 200 film in over 20 sections and anticipates more than 150,000 cinemagoers.

The programme will also feature panels, workshops and master classes with film-makers.

The opening film will be Pedro Almodovar’s I’m So Excited, following the opening ceremony at the Lutfi Kirdar Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The festival programme includes a new section titled Stories of Women as well as the From Literature to Silver Screen section, which returns following a long absence. Special sections include Am I Not a Citizen?: Barbarism, Civic Awakening and the City in collaboration with the 13^th Istanbul Biennial and Reality is a Miracle: Carlos Reygadas.

Meetings on the Bridge, including film development and work in progress workshops, will be held for the eighth time within the festival.

The closing and awards ceremony will be held on April 14 at the Cemal Resit Rey Concert Hall, during which the Golden Tulips and other prizes will be presented. The winning film will be screened again after the ceremony.

The Best Picture in the National Competition category will be awarded with $85,000 (150,000 TL) and the Best Director will win $28,000 (50,000 TL).

The jury will be headed by Turkish film director Tayfun Pirselimoğlu. Director of Montpellier International Mediterranean Film Festival Jean-François Bourgeot, Director of TV stations Cine+Club, Classic&Star, Famiz Bruno Deloye, Painter Komet, actress Nihal Yalçın are the other members of the National Golden Tulip Competition Jury.

The ten films vying for the Golden Tulip in the National Competition are:

• Özür Dilerim / Forgive Me / Cemil Ağacıkoğlu
• Köksüz / Nobody’s Home / Deniz Akçay Katıksız
• Yozgat Blues / Mahmut Fazıl Coşkun / Turkey-Germany
• Saroyan Ülkesi / Saroyanland / Lusin Dink
• Kelebeğin Rüyası / The Butterfly’s Dream / Yılmaz Erdoğan
• Karnaval /Can Kılcıoğlu
• Hayatboyu / Lifelong / Aslı Özge
• Sen Aydınlatırsın Geceyi / Thou Gild’st The Even /Onur Ünlü
• Soğuk / Cold / Uğur Yücel
• Devir / The Cycle / Derviş Zaim

The head of jury for the International Golden Tulip Competition will be director Peter Weir. As well as Weir, Screen International film critic Mark Adams, Iranian actress Fatemeh Simin Motamed-Arya, Sebastian Lelio, director of Gloria which won the Best Actress Award in Berlin International Film Festival, Malgoska Szumowska, the director of In The Name Of winning the Teddy Award in Berlin (also to be screened in “From the World of Festivals” section of the festival), will also be jury members.

The 13 films to compete for Golden Tulip in this year’s International Competition are:

• What Richard Did / Lenny Abrahamson / Ireland
• Foxfire / Laurent Cantet / France-Canada
• The Attack / Ziad Doueiri / Lebanon-France-Qatar-Belgium
• Camille Claudel, 1915 / Bruno Dumont / France
• Kelebeğin Rüyası / The Butterfly’s Dream / Yılmaz Erdoğan / Turkey
• Nairobi Half Life / David Tosh Gitonga / Kenya-Germany
• Dead Europe / Tony Krawitz / Australia
• Boven is het stil / It’s all so quiet / Nanouk Leopold / Netherlands-Germany
• Dom s bashenkoy / House With A Turret /  Eva Neymann / Ukraine
• Student /  Darezhan Omirbayev / Kazakhstan
• Hayatboyu / Lifelong / Aslı Özge / Turkey
• Pardé / Closed Curtain / Jafar Panahi & Kamboziya Partovi / Iran
• A Late Quartet / Yaron Zilberman / USA

Cinema Honorary Awards will be presented at the opening ceremony to actress Lale Belkıs, cinematographer Aytekin Çakmakçı, actor Ahmet Mekin and scriptwriter Ayşe Saşa for their contribution to Turkish cinema. A

Director Costa Gavras will be presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award before the screening of his latest film Capital on April 7. The director will also give a master class on the same day.

A Cinema Honorary Award will be presented to director Peter Weir at the closing ceremony and will also give a master class April 12.