25/03/2021 - The Istanbul Film Festival’s industry platform is ready to showcase a batch of upcoming Turkish productions both in development and in post-production

Director Tarık Aktaş, whose project Kriegsausgabe has been selected for Meetings on the Bridge’s Film Development Workshop

The Istanbul Film Festival celebrates its 40^th anniversary with a special edition that will run both online and in physical spaces starting on 1 April and wrapping up in June. For the second year in a row, the festival’s international co-production, training and networking platform, Meetings on the Bridge (MoB), will be held online, running from 2-9 April.

In the Film Development Workshop, 15 projects – 12 fiction films and three documentaries – will be competing for the Meetings on the Bridge Award, the TRT Award, the CNC Award and five more prizes that will be announced at the end of the event. Some of the highlights of the selection are Kriegsausgabe, a dystopian project set in Mesopotamia by Tarık Aktaş (Dead Horse Nebula [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), and I’m Here I’m Fine, the sophomore drama feature by Emine Emel Balcı (Until I Lose My Breath [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]). Other participants include Dark Forest, the sophomore feature by Nazlı Elif Durlu, who was rewarded at MoB last year for her debut, Zuhal [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], and Selman Nacar, who also bagged a prize last year for his debut, Between Two Dawns [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Selman Nacar
film profile], and is now presenting his sophomore feature, Hesitation Wound. Award-winning documentary filmmaker Rûken Tekeş (Aether [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) is also taking part with her debut fiction feature, Philax.

The full list of selected Film Development Workshop projects is as follows:

Almost Entirely a Slight Disaster - Umut Subaşı
Producer: Cemre Erül

The Banishment - Yılmaz Özdil
Producer: Hêwî Çinar

Berna - Sinan Kesova (Turkey/France)
Producers: Alara Hamamcıoğlu, Arda Çiltepe (Vigo Film)
Co-producer: Xavier Rocher (La Fabrica Nocturna Cinéma)

Dark Forest - Nazlı Elif Durlu
Producer: Anna Maria Aslanoğlu (Istos Film)

Gold Fever - Yavuz Gözeller
Producer: Hilal Şenel (Peep Productions)

Hesitation Wound - Selman Nacar (Turkey/France)
Producers: Burak Çevik (Kuyu Film), Diloy Gülün (Karma Film)
Co-producer: Guillaume de Seille (Arizona Films)

I’m Here I’m Fine - Emine Emel Balcı
Producers: Dilek Aydın (Heimatlos Films), Prolog Film

Kriegsausgabe - Tarık Aktaş
Producer: Güneş Şekeroğlu (Hay Film)

Philax - Rûken Tekeş
Producers: Balam Bingül, Billur Arıkan (Sarya Film Collective)

Road to Tokyo - Efe Öztezdoğan
Producers: Aslıhan Altuğ, Haluk Koçak (Rings in Color)

Şerife Tavşan - Tareq Daoud
Producer: Çiğdem Mater (Ret Film)

The Snails - Gülten Taranç
Producer: Eylem Atakav (Taranç & Taranç Film)

Sound Dreams of Istanbul - Anıl Eraslan
Producer: Kıvılcım Akay (Akay Film)

Thursday Night Is Too Dark - Onur Sefer
Producer: Tilbe Cana İnan

Tussifed - Doğu Yaşar Akal
Producer: Ali Kaan Ege (Harakiri Film)

The Neighbours Platform will present six feature-film projects (five fictions and one documentary) from Turkey’s neighbouring countries – Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Iran and Kazakhstan. Among the projects competing are the sophomore features by Cypriot writer-director Tonia Mishiali (Pause [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Tonia Mishiali
film profile]), Iranian filmmaker Kiarash Anvari (The Pot and the Oak) and Kazakh helmer Assel Aushakimova (Welcome to the USA). The documentary feature debut by Greek director Thanasis Neofotistos and Georgian debutants Giorgi Chalauri and Nino Shaburishvili round off the selection.

The Neighbours Platform projects are as follows:

Bikechess - Assel Aushakimova (Kazakhstan)
Producers: Almagul Tleukhanova, Assel Aushakimova (Alma Pictures)

The Chaos of Silence - Nino Shaburishvili (Georgia)
Producer: Nino Shaburishvili

The Eagle of Barwaq - Kiarash Anvari (Iran/France)
Producer: Sadaf Foroughi (Sweet Delight Pictures)
Co-producer: Guillaume de Seille (Arizona Films)

GingerEla - Thanasis Neofotistos (Greece)
Producers: Helene Stergiopoulou, Haris Papadopoulos (NF-Films)

Maya - Tonia Mishiali (Cyprus/Poland)
Producers: Stelana Kliris, Tonia Mishiali (Bark Like A Cat Films)
Co-producer: Anna Różalska (Match&Spark)

Pit - Giorgi Chalauri (Georgia)
Producer: Giorgi Kobalia (Terra Incognita Films)

Meanwhile, for the tenth edition of the MoB Work in Progress section, seven Turkish projects (five fictions and two documentaries) at the post-production stage will be presented online to film professionals. Among the selected projects are the new works by Burak Çevik (Belonging [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Burak Çevik
film profile]) and Senem Tüzen (Motherland [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]).

The Work in Progress selection is as follows:

Eat Your Catfish - Senem Tüzen, Adam Isenberg, Noah Amir Arjomand
Producers: Senem Tüzen, Adam Isenberg, Noah Amir Arjomand

Forms of Forgetting - Burak Çevik
Producers: Selman Nacar, Burak Çevik

Halime - Morteza Atabaki
Producer: Morteza Atabaki

Like Cranes - İffet Eren Danışman Boz
Producers: Eyüp Boz, İffet Eren Danışman Boz

Sea of Carings - Canan Yarar, Mahir Kalaylıoğlu
Producer: Mavi Anadolu

Snow and the Bear [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Selcen Ergun
film profile] - Selcen Ergun
Producers: Nefes Polat, Selcen Ergun

Within the Shadow of Memories - Şafak Şahin
Producers: Şafak Şahin, Emine Yıldırım Şahin

Finally, five series projects make up the Series on the Bridge section:

Earthlings - Yiğit Hepsev
Producers: Aslıhan Altuğ, Büke Akşehirli (Mavra Film)

Eastern Nightmares - Orçun Behram
Producer: Müge Özen (Solis Film)

Gênco - Ali Kemal Çınar
Producer: Nesra Gürbüz (Monomit Film)

The Guest - Caner Özyurtlu
Producers: İmre Tezel (Paz Istanbul), Okan Üzey (Kalavara Film)

Teensy - Tunç Şahin
Producer: Aslı Filiz, Ersan Çongar (Bir Film)