The National Documentary Competition will be held as part of the 43rd Istanbul Film Festival to take place between 17-28 April 2024, a specialized competitive film festival.

The aim of the National Documentary Competition is to endorse and encourage documentary filmmaking and documentarists in Türkiye, to support the development thereof; to make sure that the qualified products of documentary cinema of Türkiye reach the viewers; to provide for these films to be screened for international film critics, festival directors, representatives of distributors and televisions; and thus contribute to the foreign promotion of the cinema of Türkiye.

a) The jury, upon evaluation of the films participating in the National Documentary Competition, selects the Best Documentary. The jury may also give a “Special Mention” for a specific contribution by a director. These awards are given to single films, and cannot be shared.
b) A monetary prize of 30,000 Turkish liras is given to the director of the Best Documentary.
c) The directors, producers, and distributors of the winning films agree to mention the prize they are awarded in press documents and promotional materials as well as during any distribution of the winning film (on the credit titles).

For the films to participate in the National Documentary Competition, the following conditions are envisaged:

a) Turkish documentary films realised after 1 January 2023 are eligible for participation to the Festival. For a film to be deemed “Turkish”, the director or the producer of the film must be a national of the Republic of Türkiye.
b) The exhibition format of the films need to be DCP.
c) Participating documentary films need to be at least 30 minutes-long.
d) Documentary films made for TV are eligible as long as they have not been aired or available online previously.
e) Productions intended for commercial or touristic promotion are not considered as documentary films.
f) Films available on DVD or streaming or VOD services are not eligible for inclusion in the programme.
g) Films which have not been selected upon their submissions for previous editions are not re-evaluated.

The producer(s) or director(s) applies to participate in the festival as the legal owner of the film. If there are more than one legal owners, then the submission form must include the signatures of all legal owners or their written consent in attachment. The owners can participate in the festival with as many films as they wish.

In order for the films applying for the Festival to be promoted and to be included in the Festival catalogue, below documentation should be submitted until 19 January 2024, 17.00 hours, along with the submission forms through the online Eventival system at https://vp.eventival.com/iff/2024.

a) Online screener link (valid for at least 3 months)
b) Technical features
c) Turkish and English synopses
d) Press book or electronic press kit
e) Film stills (high res)
f) Director’s photograph (high res)
g) Digital Posters (3)
h) (In case the screening copy is not subtitled in English) Dialogue list for subtitle translation or English subtitle list
i) Quicktime mp4 or mov 16:9 with minimum 1920x1080p resolution trailer or excerpt and an online link to such.

The submitter confirms the veracity of the information provided in the submission form. The director or submitter 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.

Turkish films are screened with English subtitles. If the owner of the film cannot supply an English subtitled print of the film, the Festival will prepare electronic subtitles.

The last day for delivery of the prints of the films the participation of which in the competition are finalised is two weeks before the Festival, at the latest. The screening copies are delivered to the Festival Office at the İKSV (Istanbul Foundation of Culture and Arts) building or via downloadable links. The films are retrieved from the same place within a week after the Festival ends.

The DCP copies must be sent to the Festival in their original hardcover cases clearly labelled with the title of the film.

The final judgment with respect to the inclusion of a film in the Documentaries section of the festival and inclusion in the National Documentary Competition is entered by the Turkish Cinema Advisory Committee and the festival directorate. The festival reserves the right to not disclose information regarding the selection of films.

In order for the competition to be held, at least 6 films should compete. If the number of films determined until 19 January 2024, the deadline for submission, does not reach six, then the competition is not held; the films which have applied are screened at the Festival out of competition.

Films to be screened within the National Documentary Competition are evaluated by a jury determined by the Festival Directorate. The jury comprises film producers, directors, screenwriters, actors, film critics, film historians, academics, and prominent people in branches of art connected to cinema, from Türkiye and abroad.

The President of the Jury is appointed by the Festival Directorate. The jury designates its own working system. Members of the jury should view the films in competition, the screening arrangement of which is determined by the Festival Directorate, within the duration of the Festival, in formal screenings or in private screenings in movie theatres, individually or collectively. The Festival Directorate keeps an observer with no voting rights at the deliberation session of the jury. The President of the Jury, before the decision is announced, submits to the Festival Directorate the minutes signed by all members.

The Festival is responsible for the insurance of the prints selected, from the moment they are received by the Festival to the moment they are collected by the courier.

Should a print be lost or damaged, the Festival’s responsibility could be engaged only to the extent of the value indicated by the producer on the entry form. If the entrant does not submit the entry form to the Festival Office until 19 January 2024, the print will be valued by the insurance company on 1,000 US Dollars.

The festival authority reserves the right to disqualify films not meeting the technical specifications required and sufficient for public screening.

The authority of any resolution concerning issues not explicitly established in the regulations belongs to the Istanbul Foundation of Culture and Arts. The film owners, producers and directors of the Turkish films participating in the programme of the 43rd Istanbul Film Festival are considered to have accepted the rules of these regulations.

The festival authority reserves the right to amend the regulations.