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INDUSTRY Turkey

Istanbul's Meetings on the Bridge announces awards

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- The Istanbul Film Festival's industry section has announced the awards for its ninth edition

Istanbul's Meetings on the Bridge announces awards

The ninth edition of the Istanbul Film Festival's industry section, Meetings on the Bridge, dedicated solely to Turkish films, featured the Film Development Workshop with 13 projects, Works in Progress with five films, and nine projects to be supported by the Turkish-German Co-Production Development Fund, formed in co-operation with Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and the Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein Film Fund, with the support of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

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In the Film Development section, featuring projects at the treatment stage, Eset Akçilad's Fish won the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism Support Award of $10,000. Erdem Tepegöz’s Jarabulus won the CNC Support Award of €10,000, and the Melodika Sound Post-Production Award, which covers all sound production costs, was presented to Rojda Akbayır for The Fragments, the only documentary project in the section.

“The workshop was difficult, as we had 26 meetings in two days,” Akbayır told Cineuropa. “But it was also very useful, with the participants being producers from all over the world. It is very hard to make documentaries in Turkey, compared to fiction films, and we also have to shoot in Hannover and Paris, so meeting potential co-producers was very good for us.”

Serhad Karaaslan received the Mediterranean Film Institute (MFI) Scenario Workshop Award, granted for the first time this year, for Passed by Censor. This award covers four scenario-writing workshops to be held in 2014 that will be attended by the director and the scriptwriter.

At the third edition of the Work in Progress Workshop, open to feature films and documentaries, the big winner was Song of My Mother by writer-director Erol Mintas and producer Aslı Erdem. The project received the 1000 VOLT Post-Production Award, which covers up to €50,000 of the post-production costs, and the Başka Sinema Award, given for the first time this year, consisting of a virtual print fee-exempt screening through Başka Sinema’s network of 11 theatres around the country, a new initiative for the distribution of independent national and international films. The theatres each dedicate one of their screens to showing arthouse and low-budget films from morning to night, with a different film in each slot, and change their programming every week.

"This is a great opportunity for local films," Erdem told Cineuropa. "They often do not have a chance to be released, or to stay in cinemas for longer than a few weeks. This way we will be able to go into 11 cinemas without having to pay the VPF. For small films like ours, this is a great incentive.

"Meetings on the Bridge has been crucial for our film," Erdem added. "Three years ago, we presented the project here in the development stage, and it was here that two years ago we met our French co-producer [Guillame De Seille]; now we presented the film to the jury, consisting of top-level professionals, who gave us very useful feedback. With these two awards, we will be able to finish the film and also screen it to audiences, which is amazing."

The nine projects to be supported by the Turkish-German Co-Production Development Fund, chosen from the total of 16 submissions, are:

The Crooked House by Barış Özbiçer – co-producers: Çiğdem Mater - Ret Film (TR); Klaus Julian Hermannsen - Visual Distractions (DE)

Kıtmir by Derviş Zaim – co-producers: Derviş Zaim - Marathon Film (TR); Numan Acar - Acar Entertainment Filmproduction (DE)

Birth of Purple by Jessica Krummacher – co-producers: Titus Kreyenberg - Unafilm (DE); Nadir Öperli - Bulut Film (TR)

Zer by Kazım Öz – co-producers: Meral Balık - Yapım 13 Film Production (TR); Zülfiye Akkulak - Newa Film (DE)

My Father's Wings by Kıvanç Sezer – co-producers: Soner Alper - Nar Film (TR); Petra Oplatkova - The Talent Incubator UG (DE)

Hilal, Feza and Other Planets by Kutluğ Ataman – co-producers: Fabian Gasmia - Detailfilm Gasmia & Kamm GbR (DE); Kutluğ Ataman - The Institute for the Readjustment of Clocks (TR)

Two Strangers by Nazli Elif Durlu – co-producers: Dirk Engelhardt - Kundschafter Filmproduktion (DE); Annamaria Aslanoğlu - Istos Yapim (TR)

Blue Bicycle [+see also:
trailer
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by Ümit Köreken – co-producers: Ümit Köreken - Drama Film Production (TR); Leontine Petit - Hamster Film (DE)

Ember by Zeki Demirkubuz – co-producers: Başak Emre - Mavi Film (TR); Mustafa Dok - Bredok Film Production (DE)

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