The Festival’s International and National Competiton winners will be announced on 14 July.
The 40th Istanbul Film Festival meets the audiences in cinemas and outdoor venues until 14 July, the screenings also continue online. The International Competition screenings are held at Atlas 1948 and Kadıköy movie theatres. A total of 16 feature-length and 6 short films are accessible on the festival’s online screening platform at filmonline.iksv.org and can be watched from anywhere in Turkey; the online screenings are geo-restricted to Turkey. The National Competition screenings within the Cinema of Turkey section, which is held for the 34th time with the contributions of Anadolu Efes will be held at Maximum Uniq Açıkhava open-air theatre.
>> Click here for the festival programme.
>> Click here for the schedule.
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
In the International Competition of the 40th Istanbul Film Festival, the films on the theme of “new perspectives in cinema” are competing for the festival’s grand prize, the Golden Tulip. This year there are 11 films from 9 countries in the International Competition. The films vying for the Golden Tulip are screened at Atlas 1948 and Kadıköy cinemas through 18 June–4 July.
Given to the best film to honour the memory of Şakir Eczacıbaşı, co-founder of Istanbul Film Festival and former IKSV chairman of 16 years, the International Competition Golden Tulip Award is again supported with a monetary prize granted by Eczacıbaşı Group.
The cash award will be shared among the director of the Golden Tulip winner film (10,000 Euros), the distributing company of the film in Turkey (50,000 TL), and the director of the film receiving the Special Jury Prize (5,000 Euros).
The 40th Istanbul Film Festival International Competition jury is headed by director Radu Jude, fellow jury members are director Mahnaz Mohammadi, actress Katia Goulioni, actor Numan Acar, and photographer and director Fabrizio Maltese.
International Competition films:
- Censor / Prano Bailey-Bond / UK
- Kodenavn: Nagasaki / Code Name: Nagasaki / Fredrik S. Hana / Norway
- Death of a Virgin, and the Sin of Not Living / George Peter Barbari / Lebanon
- Nemesis / Thomas Imbach / Switzerland
- February / Kamen Kalev / Bulgaria, France
- Madalena / Madiano Marcheti / Brazil
- Cryptozoo / Dash Shaw / USA
- Human Factors / Ronny Trocker / Germany, Italy, Denmark
- Ulbolsyn / Adilkhan Yerzhanov / Kazakhistan, France
- Dirlik Düzenlik / It's All Peace And Harmony / Nesimi Yetik / Turkey (The movie will be screened together with the National Competition films.)
- Das Mädchen und die Spinne / The Girl and the Spider / Ramon Zürcher & Silvan Zürcher / Switzerland
JUNE SCREENINGS
The festival’s eagerly anticipated sections were combined under the heading June Screenings. June screenings titles include the Best Motion Picture and Best Actress Oscars-winner Nomadland (Chloé Zhao); the Venice Grand Jury Prize winner New Order (Michel Franco); the Berlin Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize winner Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi); the cult science fiction The Man Who Saved the World directed by Çetin İnanç, aka “jet director”, who will receive the festival’s Honorary Cinema Award this year; the winner of the Berlin Film Festival’s top prize the Golden Bear Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (Radu Jude); the winner of the Silver Bear for Best Director again in Berlin Natural Light (Dénes Nagy); the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award winner music documentary Summer of Soul directed by Questlove; Hong Sang-soo's new film Introduction which won the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay in Berlin; and the recently remastered, football star Metin Oktay melodrama Crownless King directed by Atıf Yılmaz.
- The Man Who Sold His Skin / Kaouther Ben Hania / Tunisia, France, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Turkey
- Playlist / Nine Antico / France
- Terrible Jungle / Welcome to the Jungle / Hugo Benamozig, David Caviglioli / France
- Die Welt wir eine andere sein / Copilot / Anne Zohra Berrached / Germany, France
- Nebenan / Next Door / Daniel Brühl / USA, Germany
- Mainstream / Gia Coppola / USA
- Nuevo Orden / New Order / Michel Franco / Mexican, France
- Fabian oder Der Gang vor die Hunde / Fabian: Going to the Dogs / Dominik Graf / Germany
- Memory Box / Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige / France, Lebanon, Canada, Qatar
- Guzen to sozo / Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy / Ryûsuke Hamaguchi / Japan
- Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam / The Man who Saved the World / Çetin İnanç / Turkey
- Babardeala cu bucluc sau porno balamuc / Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn / Radu Jude / Romania, Croatia, Czech Republic, Luxembourg
- Supernova / Harry Macqueen / UK
- Természetes fény / Natural Light / Dénes Nagy / Hungary, Latvia, Germany, France
- Summer of Soul (…or, when the revolution could not be televised ) / Questlove / USA
- Sisters With Transistors / Lisa Rovner / UK
- Introduction / Hong Sang-soo / South Korea
- I’m Your Man / Maria Schrader / Germany
- Petite Maman / Céline Sciamma / France
- Sniegu Juz Nigdy Nie Bedzie / Never Gonna Snow Again / Malgorzata Szumowska, Michael Englert / Poland, Germany
- In The Earth / Ben Wheatley / UK
- The Sparks Brothers / Edgar Wright / UK, USA
- Taçsız Kral / The Crownless King / Atıf Yılmaz / Turkey
- Nomadland / Chloe Zhao / USA
The festival presents the entire collection of Konstantina Kotzamani’s short films
This year the festival features the entire collection of short films by Konstantina Kotzamani, the rising star of Greece, in a retrospective section.
- Arundel (2012)
- Jutarnje Molitve / Morning Prayers / (2014)
- Washingtonia (2014)
- Yellow Fieber (2015)
- Limbo (2016)
- Electric Swan (2019)
How to Save Asiye as part of Turkish Classics Revisited with the Support of Zurich Sigorta
In collaboration with Zurich Sigorta, the Istanbul Film Festival continues to bring the most significant works of Turkish cinema back to the silver screen. Esteemed director Atıf Yılmaz’s 1987 masterpiece How to Save Asiye, featuring actress Hümeyra who received the Cinema Honorary Award of the festival last year, is restored by Atlas Post Production in collaboration with Zurich Sigorta. In the scope of the festival’s “Turkish Classics Revisited” section, How to Save Asiye will return to the silver screen in its restored copy to meet the audiences.
FIPRESCI – International Federation of Film Critics Awards
International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) will present one of the films in the International Competition with the FIPRESCI Award.
NATIONAL COMPETITION
Films produced within the 2020-21 season will compete for the Golden Tulip at the National Competition to be held between 1 and 13 July at the open-air theatre at Maximum Uniq Açıkhava. The award ceremony of the festival will be held on Wednesday, 14 July.
The National Competition Jury will present prizes in 9 categories: Best Film, Best Director, Special Jury Prize, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and Best Original Score.
Best Screenplay Award will be accompanied by a cash prize of 10.000 TL contributed by Alametholistic.
İKSV will grant 150.000 TL to Best Film, and 50.000 TL to the winner-film of Special Jury Prize given in memory of Onat Kutlar. Best Director will be presented a cash award of 50.000 TL by Anadolu Efes.
Both Best Actress and Best Actor will be awarded 10.000 TL each, and Best Original Score in memory of Hasan Saltık will receive a cash award of 5.000 TL granted by LU Records.
National Competition Jury of the 40th edition of Istanbul Film Festival, headed by the director Tolga Karaçelik, comprises actress Ece Dizdar, art director and production designer Naz Erayda Kurdoğlu, producer Nadir Öperli, and writer Şebnem İşigüzel.
National Competition films:
- Av / AV: The Hunt / Emre Akay
- 9,75 / Uluç Bayraktar
- Sardunya / Geranium / Çağıl Bocut
- Bir Nefes Daha / When I'm Done Dying / Nisan Dağ
- Beni Sevenler Listesi / The List of Those Who Love Me / Emre Erdoğdu
- Yeniden Leyla / Leyla Once Again / Barış Hancıoğulları
- Zîn ve Ali’nin Hikâyesi / Govenda Ali û Dayka Zîn / The Dance of Ali and Zin / Mehmet Ali Konar
- Af / Forgiveness / Cem Özay
- Çatlak / Fractured / Fikret Reyhan
- Cemil Şov / The Cemil Show / Barış Sarhan
- İnsanlar İkiye Ayrılır / Two Types of People / Tunç Şahin
- Dirlik Düzenlik / It's All About Peace and Harmony / Nesimi Yetik
- Sen Ben Lenin / You Me Lenin / Tufan Taştan
SEYFİ TEOMAN BEST DEBUT FILM PRIZE
Seyfi Teoman Best Debut Film Prize, given in memory of director and producer Seyfi Teoman who passed away in 2012, will be given to the director of the selected film and includes 30.000 TL as an incentive for their subsequent film works. The Seyfi Teoman Best Debut Film Prize will be granted for the next five years by İKSV’s Tulip Card Membership Programme with the support of individual donors.
Only feature-length fiction debut films are eligible for the prize. The jury members of Seyfi Teoman Best Debut Film Prize are directors Zeynep Dadak, Leyla Yılmaz, and Orçun Behram.
The films vying for the Seyfi Teoman Best Debut Film Prize:
- 9,75 / Uluç Bayraktar
- Sardunya / Geranium / Çağıl Bocut
- Yeniden Leyla / Leyla Once Again / Barış Hancıoğulları
- Af / Forgiveness / Cem Özay
- Cemil Şov / The Cemil Show / Barış Sarhan
- Sen Ben Lenin / You Me Lenin / Tufan Taştan
National Documentary Competition and National Short Film Competition Prizes
The 40th Istanbul Film Festival’s National Short Film Competition and National Documentary Competition awards have found their winners. The competition films were screened through 20-30 May on the festival’s online platform filmonline.iksv.org due to the pandemic restrictions.
National Documentary Competition
This year 9 films competed in the National Documentary Competition within the Istanbul Film Festival. The National Documentary Competition Jury comprised of directors Serdar Kökçeoğlu and Martina Priessner, and director and producer Hasan Söylemez.
The Best Documentary Award was given to Anima directed by Yusuf Emre Yalçın. The Best Documentary Award is supported by a monetary prize of 20.000 TL granted by Discovery+ which is also the sponsor of the Documentary Time section of the festival programme this year.
Nosema directed by Etna Özbek and Rüzgâr Tayı / Wind Horse directed by Sidar İnan Erçelik received a Special Mention in the National Documentary Competition.
National Short Film Competition
This year 13 films competed in the National Short Film Competition. The competition jury comprised of actress and producer Nazlı Bulum, director Engin Erden, and film critic Selin Gürel.
The jury awarded Suçlular / The Criminals directed by Serhat Karaaslan with the Best Short Film Award which is supported by a monetary prize of 5.000 TL granted by Anadolu Efes.
A Year in Exile directed by Malaz Usta received a Special Mention in the National Short Film Competition.
FESTIVAL TICKETS
Istanbul Film Festival tickets can be purchased online at https://www.passo.com.tr/tr and at the İKSV main box office as well as the festival box offices open on screening days at Atlas 1948 and Kadıköy movie theatres.
*Online screenings are accessible only to viewers in Turkey.
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