Dates
The 44th Istanbul Film Festival, organised by Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts as a specialised competitive event, will take place 11-22 April 2025.
2. Programme
44th Istanbul Film Festival's official selection includes the most recent and noteworthy films from different fields of cinematic production that reflect change and diversity, are of high quality, and can represent the art of cinema internationally. The programme is composed of the following elements in accordance with these criteria:
a) Golden Tulip Competition
b) Short Film Competition
c) New Visions
d) Non-competitive, informative sections, thematic sections; narrative features and documentaries can be selected for these sections.
e) Special sections
Films from Türkiye to be included in the programme are selected by the Festival Directorate from among the submissions or by invitation. The Directorate reserves the right to not disclose information regarding the selection of films.
3. Conditions of Participation
The below conditions are envisioned for films longer than 20 minutes that are to be included in the official selection of the 44th Istanbul Film Festival.
a) The official selection is open only to (narrative, documentary, or animation) films realised after 1 January 2024 regardless of genre or format.
b)Only films of at least 60 minutes of duration may be included in the Golden Tulip Competition and New Visions; films shorter than 60 minutes may be included in other sections within the official selection of the festival.
c)Animation, fiction, documentary or experimental short films from Türkiye realised after 1 January 2024 can submit to the Short Film Competition. The films should at most be 20 minutes long; their exhibition formats need to be DCP (1998x1080px if flat, 2048x858px if scope).
d) All exhibition formats need to be DCP.
e)
- i. Films which have participated to any other public Istanbul screening event, including commercial releases, are not eligible for the official selection.
- ii. Turkish produced feature-length films which have won a Best Film Award at another festival in Türkiye are not eligible for the competition.
- iii. Feature films published on DVD for sale or available on VoD, online, or streaming platforms in Türkiye are not eligible to be included in the official selection.
- iiv. Films which have not been selected upon their submissions for previous editions are not re-evaluated even in the case of re-editing.
4. Application
The legal rights owner of the film makes a submission to participate in the festival. If there is more than one legal rights owner, then the submission form must include the names/titles of all legal owners or their written consent in attachment. The rights owners can submit to the festival with as many films as they wish.
Below documentation should be submitted until 11 January 2025, 17.00 hours.
a) Online screener link (valid for at least 3 months)
b) Technical features and film info
c) Turkish and English synopses (to be used as is on the website and catalogue)
d) Press book or electronic press kit (if available)
e) Film stills (high res, landscape, to be used as is on the website and catalogue)
f) Director’s photograph (high res);
g) Posters in digital form
h) (in case the screening copy is not subtitled in English) Dialogue list for subtitle translation or English subtitle list
The submitter confirms the veracity of the information provided in the submission form. The legal rights owner who officially submits the film through the form commits to refrain from withdrawing the film from the festival after the programme is announced at the festival launch press conference after they have confirmed in writing the selection of the film.
