21st Meetings on the Bridge Work in Progress Platform selection announced

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12.Mar.2026

Organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) as part of the Istanbul Film Festival, with Anadolu Efes as its main supporter, the 21st Meetings on the Bridge continues to bring together filmmakers from Türkiye with international film professionals. Ten projects have been selected for the Work in Progress Platform, which will take place between 14–16 April.

Filmmakers participating in Meetings on the Bridge will take the first steps towards future co-productions, collaborations and knowledge exchange following their group work in the workshops where they will develop projects together. Feature-length fiction and documentary projects from Türkiye that have completed shooting and are in post-production stage will present their work and hold one-on-one meetings with international industry professionals as part of the Work in Progress platform. Meetings on the Bridge aims to support the completion of the post-production processes for the selected films in the Work in Progress programme and to facilitate their entry into international festivals, distribution, and marketing.

This year, 48 projects applied to the Work in Progress platform. The selection committee, comprising festival programmer Céline Roustan; producer Guillaume de Seille; director Rezan Yeşilbaş, evaluated the applications and selected ten projects for the platform.

Among the ten projects selected for this year’s platform –five documentaries and five fiction films– seven are debut features. 

Projects selected for the Work in Progress Platform:

  • Ballad of the Skeleton (dir. Murat Uğurlu, prod. Ilgım Coşar, Murat Uğurlu, co-prod. Linus Gunther, Zeynep Şantıroğlu, Murat Mezhiev, Alexandr Plotnikov)
  • Being a Sujuk (dir. Volkan Durmuş, prod. K. Onur Karakuş, Serpil Altın)
  • Dancing Angels (dir. Ferit Kılıç, prod. Diloy Gülün, Sena Tonguç, Beste Yamalıoğlu, co-prod. Suat Sağlam)
  • Death of Truth (dir. prod. Hüseyin Karabey)
  • Other Seasons of Hakkari (dir. Evrim Kaya, prod. Evrim Kaya, Sevim Sancaktar)
  • Seeds of the Same Pomegranate (dir. Şeyla Korkut, prod. Ines Asatryan)
  • Shapeshifters (dir. Semih Gülen, prod. Alara Hamamcıoğlu Bayraktar, Arda Çiltepe)
  • Silent House (dir. Mustafa Deniz, prod. Mustafa Deniz, co-prod. Onur Çakır)
  • Stratum (dir. Daniel Kötter, Marko Grba Singh, prod. Jelena Angelovski, co-prod. Burak Çevik, Veton Nurkollari, Eroll Bilibani)
  • This is It, the Apocalypse (dir. Balahan Gürel, prod. Aysun Karaman, Okan Üzey, co-prod. Çağdaş Malay, Solal Coutard)

In March and April, the selected project teams will receive comprehensive training from experienced national and international mentors on script development, presentation techniques, pitch deck and film package preparation, film financing, co-production, AI tools in filmmaking, and festival, distribution, and marketing strategies. Participants will make their first international presentation at Meetings on the Bridge and hold one-on-one meetings with industry professionals.

The award winners will be announced later.

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