23 rd YEAR

Once again we are the beginning of a new festival.

At this time we feel the weight of the rush which started months ago. As the festival team we experience exhaustion along with excitement. This massive effort of trying to offer the audience a cinematic journey in the dimness of a movie theater will be over just in a week. And naturally everyone will go back to their own world with their own rush of life. While the curtain will down with a tad of concern about whether it will be going up again the next year.

Our joy and motivation is merely hearing a director or an audience we met somewhere sometime saying, “I still cannot forget a movie I saw at one of your festivals ,” or “This festival was like a school for us.” Such remarks are what drive us once again every year despite our doubts and questions about continuing the festival. And there are also the applications from abroad. We became known in almost every country. Applications from far away countries like Chile, Korea, Brazil and Singapore are not only a blessing offered by the Internet, but also a result of the meticulous work of our festival team, carrying out the festival organization without any failures which can affect the credibility of our country.

This year we has 870 film applications from countries like Turkey, Belgium, France, Greece, England, Brazil, Hungary, Iran, Bulgaria, Poland, Australia, Thailand, USA, Spain, Italy, India, Canada, Germany, Armenia, Austria, Lebanon, Moldova, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Kosovo, Holland, Romania, Switzerland, Afghanistan, Macedonia, Singapore, Bangladesh, Argentine, Israel, Algeria, Morocco, Bosnia Herzegovina and Sweden. The program offered is developed by a careful selection from all these films.

Each film is screened twice at different days and hours. We wish local and foreign directors to meet and cooperate for new projects. We aim to help meet the audience with the directors of the films and thus help build a bridge between them through the art of cinema.

It has become a tradition to have fellow artist giving the opening speech. In the past years Alin Taşçıyan, Tayfun Pirselimoğlu and Derviş Zaim contributed a lot to our opening nights with their participation. This year it will be scriptwriter Ümit Ünal, who will give a speech on “Art of Cinema and Short Film” .

This year theme of our workshop section is “Meaning and Importance of Art Direction in Cinema”. Natali Yeres, who has been the art director of many movies and who has received many awards for her work, will be sharing her experiences with the audience. We expect to see the same interest shown in films to be shown in the workshops, too.

Everything changes so fast. At the initial years of our festival, audience would be waiting in line hours before just to see the films, and many would not be able to go in and see. Back then we couldn't print a catalog or have Turkish subtitles on films, because we did not have the money. Those days of enthusiasm are long gone. Some of the audience of that time has become the film makers of today. We believe the short films they watched at our festival had some contribution to their journey, and we are more than happy for this.

Today one can watch a short film on the net or even on a mobile phone. We feel that we may have to question whether to continue this festival. Bu we also believe the best answer will be given by you with the interest you will show in the films and activities of our festival.

Once again, thanks and kudos to everyone and anyone who has contributed and supported the festival.

Hilmi Etikan