61st International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival Met With The Media: Our Story Together
The countdown has begun for the 61st International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival. The first information about the festival, which will bring together moviegoers between October 5-12, was shared at a press conference held at the Akra Barut Hotel.
Antalya Metropolitan Municipality and Festival President Muhittin Böcek, festival’s Administrative Director Av. Cansel Tuncer, Art Director Deniz Yavuz, this year’s National Feature Film Competition Jury President director Ferzan Özpetek and jury member actor İlker Kaleli, jury member art director Deniz Göktürk Kobanbay and National Documentary Film Competition Jury director Jale İncekol and actress Pınar Göktaş attended the press conference of Turkey’s most established cinema festival at Akra Barut Hotel.
The National Competition juries and some titles from the festival program were announced at the press conference moderated by actor and advertiser Evren Bingöl. Antalya Metropolitan Municipality and Festival President Muhittin Böcek was the first to speak at the meeting. Böcek began his words by saying, “I am truly happy to be able to announce the 61st Golden Orange Film Festival, which we are organizing today in Antalya, Turkey’s most established meeting place for cinema,” and continued as follows:
“I say I am very happy because I am deeply saddened by last year. As you know, we were not able to hold our festival last year. I am extremely sorry about this issue, not only as a mayor but also as a citizen and a movie lover. I would like to emphasize once again that, despite all the misinformation, we made a great effort and struggle to hold our festival in the best way possible last year, as we do every year. The area where all issues related to cinema will be evaluated is our festival. Nothing is considered as not happening or happened. For this reason, a workshop was planned for this festival where the issues and the steps to be taken for the future of our cinema will be discussed.
Böcek stated that as a result of the lessons learned from last year, the decision was made to host the festival this year together with the Antalya Metropolitan Municipality and cinema workers, and said, "The important thing is to overcome all these and bring the festival back to world standards."
“Our Story Together”
Drawing attention to the message on the festival poster, Böcek expressed that the public was given the leading role for the first time this year with the slogan “Our Story is Together” and said, “We know that the stories we grew up, lived and embraced are together. We know that what we watch on the screen are the lives, feelings and thoughts of each of us. We believe that we need to work together so that more stories can meet more audiences.” Emphasizing that the festival’s support for cinema increased with a total award of 5 million liras this year, Böcek concluded his words by saying, “I am honored to be the mayor of this wonderful city and to host our festival for the 61st time, and to realize this festival together with our valuable filmmakers.”
Ferzan Özpetek: Supporting new filmmakers is important to me
Director Ferzan Özpetek, the president of the National Feature Film Competition this year, explained the importance of the Antalya Film Festival for him by going back to the days when he competed in the festival with his first film, “Hamam”:
I was very excited when the offer came because I was the head of the jury again 19 years ago. But before that, I owe Antalya a lot. It is a very important festival for me, it has opened many doors for me. That is why I did not think about the problems of last year when the offer came. My idea is to support completely new directors and the production of new films.
Festival Art Director Deniz Yavuz started his speech by expressing his gratitude to the creators of the festival, Behlül Dal and Dr. Avni Tonunay, and described this year’s festival marathon with the words “We have set out on this essential journey once again with the emphasis of ‘Our Story is Together’, saying cinema despite everything, in the discipline of pioneer festival directors Onat Kutlar and Mahmut Tali Öngören, who left invaluable legacies to Turkish cinema.” Yavuz then introduced the National Feature Competition jury, chaired by Ferzan Özpetek. This year, the National Feature Film Jury includes screenwriter-director Melisa Önel, actors İlker Kaleli and Gökçe Bahadır, academic and film critic Melis Behlil, designer and art director Deniz Göktürk Kobanbay and musician Mercan Dede.
“A festival that reminds us that cinema does not accept any pressure or order”
Speaking at the meeting, jury member actor İlker Kaleli began his speech with the words, “A country’s culture, stories and storytellers keep it alive.” Reminding the importance of the Golden Orange Film Festival in this area, Kaleli said, “The Golden Orange is a festival that is followed closely abroad and also reminds us that cinema does not accept any pressure or order. For this reason, I would like to thank Ferzan Özpetek, who has successfully represented our country in the international arena for many years, and the entire team for valuing our perspective.”
Jury member, designer and art director Deniz Göktürk Kobanbay shared his feelings with the words, “I am very happy to be together at such a festival, especially at a time when cinema is struggling so much.”
Speaking at the meeting, National Documentary Competition Jury member director Jale İncekol said, “I am very excited by the selection, I have no doubt that the halls will be filled to the brim like in the old days, that we will experience that great excitement again,” while another jury member actress Pınar Göktaş expressed her wish, “I hope it will be a festival that we will spend freely, with pleasure and with a lot of inspiration.”
A First at the Festival: “Cinema Schools Student Films Competition”
Cansel Tuncer, the Festival Administrative Director of Altın Portakal this year: “Our festival continues to serve the world of cinema as one of the respected festivals not only in Turkey but also in the world. This year, we are before you again with a full program that pushes the boundaries of art and creativity. The most fundamental mission of our festival is to bring new and original voices to Turkish cinema, to support young talents and to ensure that our cinema is more visible in the international arena. As in previous years, we will bring distinguished works in every field of cinema art to our audiences both nationally and internationally. With this in mind, we will realize a first in our festival this year. We will organize a student film competition section for film schools. We thought of this section in our festival to evaluate the qualified works of film students in film schools operating in Turkey and encourage them. They will be able to participate in this section with their films of maximum 15 minutes made between September 1, 2022 and July 30, 2024, and we will host our 12 student films that made it to the finals during our festival and bring them together with film professionals. We will present them with our Golden Orange Award in the best student film and special jury award categories. I would like to mention another first within the scope of our festival; we will organize a cinema workshop between October 10-12. All stakeholders of the sector will come together and discuss cinema from A to Z in a total of 9 sessions for 3 days in order to contribute to the solution of current problems and evaluate the relevant titles and sign the final declarations.