Turkish cinema will have a presence for the first time at Filmart this year, through a booth organised by Turkey’s Izmir Cinema Association (ICA).

ICA will be promoting new Turkish cinema which has been released or screened at film festivals over the past year, as well as films that are currently in production. Turkey’s regional cinema organisations have been increasing efforts to market Turkish films overseas following their recent success at the world’s top film festivals.

Notable titles being promoted on the Turkish Filmart stand include Nuri Bilge Ceylon’s Once Upon A Time In Anatolia, which was awarded the grand jury prize at last year’s Cannes film festival; Raşit Çelikezer’s Can, which took the special jury prize in Sundance’s World Dramatic Competition this year, and Reis Çelik’s Night Of Silence, which won a Crystal Bear for best feature in the Generation 14plus section of this year’s Berlin film festival.

“Although Turkish cinema is promoted every year within Cannes and Berlin, the large Far East market has not yet been included this effort. Therefore, it has become indispensible to represent Turkish cinema in Filmart,” said ICA’s Nesim Bencoya.

Bencoya said ICA will hand out trailers and screeners at its Filmart booth and its goal is to put interested buyers in touch with the producers and sales agents of these films.

ICA also organises the Turkish Film Festival of Hong Kong, which is taking place for the third time this year from April 17-22, and also organises a Turkish film festival in Beirut in March.

The Ankara Cinema Association organises the Turkish presence at Berlin and Cannes.

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