In the 25 sections of the festival a total of 357 short and feature-length films by 245 directors from 50 countries were screened at 8 movie theatres in 593 screenings which were attended by
135 thousand festivalgoers. In the course of 16 days, cinephiles enjoyed 3 master classes that featured festival guests, 7 panel discussions, films introduced by directors, producers or actors at screenings, and 3 workshops, 5 master classes and 3 panels which were held as part of Meetings on the Bridge.

Supporters of the festival

In addition to the festival sponsor Akbank, the 33rd Istanbul Film Festival was made possible by contributions from theme sponsors Anadolu Efes, NTV, Sabah Newspaper, SinemaTV, Nescafé Gold and tv2. Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism provided major support for the festival while Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and Beyoğlu Municipality continued their promotional support. In 2014, Renault will carry the guests of the Istanbul Film Festival. Leading Sponsor Eczacıbaşı Holding, Official Communications Sponsor Vodafone Red, Official Carrier DHL,and official accommodation sponsor Martı Istanbul Hotel continued their supports for the festival in addition to Zurich Sigorta, GFK, directComn Marketing Group and AGC.

Istanbul Film Festival continued to revive significant works of Turkish cinema to audiences as part of the Turkish Classics Revisited which was initiated seven years ago with the sponsorship from Groupama. This year Yavuz Turgul’s classic drama Muhsin Bey starring Şener Şen, Uğur Yücel and Sermin Hümeriç was screened from its print restored by the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Turkish Film-TV Center.

Honorary Awards

During the opening ceremony, the Honorary Awards of the festival were presented to veterans of Turkish cinema: screenwriter Umur Bugay, actress Sevda Ferdağ, producer Abdurrahman Keskiner, actor Eşref Kolçak, musician Attila Özdemiroğlu, and director, screenwriter and producer İrfan Tözüm. Marin Karmitz, director, producer and the legendary figure of independent film distribution who celebrated 40years of his film career, was in Istanbul to hold a master class and to receive the Cinema Honorary Award at the closing ceremony held on Saturday, 19 April.

The Lifetime Achievement Award of the festival was presented to Polish master director Andrzej Wajda. Unable to travel to Istanbul due to health concerns, his award was presented on behalf of the director to Michal Kwiecinski, the producer of his film Walesa: Man of Hope.                                                                                

Special Sections

This year, the roster of Istanbul Film Festival included several special sections such as “What A Pair”, prepared for the 100th year of Turkish cinema, by film critics Fatih Özgüven and Engin Ertan, academicians Selim Eyüboğlu and Umut Tümay Arslan, and festival director Azize Tan; “Polish Experimental Animation” presented as part of the 2014 cultural programme celebrating 600 years of diplomatic relations between Turkey and Poland, and “MK2–40th Anniversary” celebrating the 40th year of Marin Karmitz’s production company MK2.

Saying that love has no age or no gender the “Where Are You My Love” section attracted great attention. One of Russian cinema's most noteworthy representatives, attaining cult status with the six films he directed, Aleksey Guerman's entire filmography was screened as part of the festival. All of the restored films from Yanaki and Milton Manaki, the Balkans' first filmmakers,were screened at the festival as part of the 100^th year anniversary of Turkish cinema.The festival commemorated the 100th anniversary of World War I with a special section that examined German expressionist film.

The classical sections of the festival such as Akbank Galas, From the World of Festivals, Masters, New Visions, Documentary Time with NTV, Mined Zone, Midnight Madness, Kids’ Menu were once again popular with the festivalgoers.

Guests of the festival

Throughout the 16 days of the festival, Istanbul was visited by actor Jowita Budnik, producer Mathilde Dedye, directors Pedro Pires, Lenny Abrahamson, Ragnar Bragason, Eskil Vogt whose films competed in the International Competition section; Ahmad Abdalla, Andreas Johnsen, Maximon Monihan, Sheena Matheiken, Maria Binder, Jasmila Zbanic and Mais Darwazah whose films competed in the FACE Human Rights section, and Talal Derki, Horacio Alcala, Farid Esam, Olli Waldhauer, Jan Kruger, Johannes Holzhausen, Hubert Sauper and Nina Maria Paschalidouwhose films were screened as part of Documentary Time With NTV.

Many actors, producers, scriptwriters and directors including Anna Mouglalis, Pawel Pawlikowski, Agata Trzebuchowska, Alexandros Avranas, Themis Panou, Penny Panayotopoulou, Kalia Papadaki, Hiner Saleem, Veronique Wüthrich, Mid Murad Bedirxan, Suat Usta, Eleni Roussenau, Uberto Pasolini, Ester Marting Bergsmark, Eli Leven, Andrea Pallaoro, Reza Dormishian, Çağla Zencirci, Guillaume Giovenetti, Masahiro Yoshino, Masako Wajima, Lee Xiao Mu, Hiroyuki Tanimoto, Tzahi Grad, Avraham Pirchi, Tami Leon, Jonathan Asser, Fernando Lavanteros, Cristobal Palma, Noaz Deshe, James Gayo, Katrin Gebbe, Giorgi Nakhasidze, Cherin Dabis, Umut Dağ, Fernando Eimbcke, Mar Coll, Marco Berger, Geetanjali Thapa, Rüdiger Suchsland, Tudor Cristian Jurgiu, Christophe Paou, Yorgos Tsemberopoulos were at the festival to present their films.

117 screenings out of a total of 593 were held with the attendance of directors, producers or actors who introduced their films before the screenings and afterwards took questions from the audience.

Late actor Tuncel Kurtiz’ wife Menend Kurtiz and actors Halit Ergenç with Kenan İmirzalıoğlu attended the screening of Sürü / The Herd on 17 April, and commemorated the legendary actor. Also at the screening of Tepecik Hayal Okulu / A Dream School in the Steppes, late director Ahmet Uluçay’s shorts were screened with the attendance of director Yeşim Ustaoğlu and his wife and son.

Representatives of international film festivals such as Venice, Cannes, Berlin, Thessaloniki, Moscow, Hamburg, Batumi, Paris, Gothenburg, Sarajevo, Busan, Sofia, Amiens, Tbilisi, Locarno, Split, IDFA, Rotterdam, Yerevan, Montpellier, Signes de Nuit, Torino, Odessa, Karlovy Vary, Forum des Images, Les Arcs, Viennale and Netherlands Film Festival were among over 350 guests of the festival.

Directors Chat

Film critics Ceyda Aşar, Engin Ertan, Esin Küçüktepepınar and Nando Salva conducted interviews with some of the directors of the films that were screened in and out of the competition: Andreas Johnsen (Ai Weiwei the Fake Case), Robin Campillo (Eastern Boys), Maximon Monihan (The Voice of The Voiceless), Rithy Panh (The Missing Picture), Xavier Dolan (Tom at the Farm), Martin Provost (Violette), John Curran (Tracks), Diego Quemada-Díez (La Jaula de oro), Jasmila Zbanic (For Those Who Can Tell No Tales), Robert Lepage & Pedro Pires (Triptyque), Daniele Luchetti (Those Happy Years), Melisa Önel (Seaburners), Ozan Açıktan (Consequences), Reha Erdem (Singing Women), Tayfun Pirselimoğlu (I Am Not Him), Ragnar Bragason (Metalhead), Anna Odell (The Reunion), Andrea Pallaoro (Medeas), Kenan Korkmaz (Gone 'The Other and The Unknown'), Esra Saydam & Nisan Dağ (Things I Cannot Tell), Zaza Urushadze (Tangerines), Maria Binder (Trans X İstanbul), Lenny Abrahamson (Frank), Hüseyin Karabey (Come To My Voice), Eskil

Big Praise for Turkish Cinema

36 fiction and documentary films were shown at the festival in the Turkish Cinema section, and its subcategories of National Competition, Out of Competition, New Turkish Cinema, Documentaries, and Hisar Short Film Selection, which has been sponsored by Anadolu Efes for the last 27 years. The Golden Tulip National Competition was noteworthy for the films that made their premieres at the festival. The competition included 4 Turkish premieres and 4 world premieres. Many Turkish films in the programme received invitations from the representatives of international film festivals worldwide.

Festival Events

Festival parties and receptions also drew big crowds. The party at garajistanbul hosted by Akbank following the opening ceremony and the gathering at Martı Istanbul Hotel hosted by Anadolu Efes following the closing ceremony were huge hits. At a special dinner reception held at Nişantaşı Park Şamdan Restaurant on Friday, 4 April, supporting organizations and institutions of the
33rd Istanbul Film Festival were presented with plaques of appreciation. The traditional boat trip for the guests of the festival was organized once again this year. The Fil’m Hafızası Short Film Night and the Fil’m Hafızası Midnight Madness parties as well as the Neil Young in Istanbul Party at Hard Rock Cafe attracted attention with surprise DJs.

Master classes and panel sessions in the festival were also very popular with the festival audience. The Golden Tulip International Competition Jury President Asghar Farhadi gave a master class as part of the festival, and talked about his approach to cinema. Master class of Marin Karmitz, the founder of French production company MK2 was followed with interest. Jan Ole Gerster, member of the jury of Seyfi Teoman Best Debut Film Prize gave a panel as part of the festival with the collaboration of SAE Istanbul.

Celebrating centenary of Turkish cinema, the Istanbul Film Festival organised a series of panels within the frame of the special section of films titled “What A Pair”. The panel discussions were held at Istanbul Modern where the screenings of the film pairs were also made: Gözde Onaran and Nil Kural spoke at What is the state of our arthouse cinema?, Kazım Öz and Emin Alper were speakers at What is the state of our political cinema?, Emel Çelebi and Güliz Sağlam participated to Making Documentary Film, Can Evrenol and Engin Ertan at Fantastic and Horror in Turkish Cinema, Zeyno Pekünlü and CANAN were speakers at Video Art and Turkish Cinema, Melikşah Altuntaş and Onur Ünlü were speakers for “What are we laughing at?” – Comedy in Turkish Cinema, Selim Eyüboğlu and Aykan Safoğlu spoke at the Kitsch and Queer in Turkish Cinema panels.

The panel discussions and film chats witnessed some heated debates. At the Filmmaking During War panel moderated by Alisa Lebow, Talal Derki, the director of Return to Homs, spoke about being a filmmaker in Syria now; Berat İlk moderated the panel on Polish Animation Cinema with the speakers Mariusz Wilczyński and Adriana Prodeus; speakers Hakan Ataman, Ahmet Yurtkul and Yasin El Haj Saleh moderated by Şenay Özden were at the Immigrants–Re-producing Life panel; Rüdiger Suchsland and Engin Ertan discussed the 100th anniversary of the First World War through German expressionist cinema at the Building A Nation Through Cinema panel; moderated by Zehra Çelenk, Tayfun Atay and Nina Maria Pachalidou discussed the effects of Turkish TV series on women at the Cannot Complain, Life’s A Kismet panel; and the Balkan’s first filmmakers Manaki Brothers’ Cultural Heritage was examined at a panel with the speakers Igor Stardelov and Sula Bozis.

Aside from the main programme of the festival, the festival events included film screenings: the 2013 Films About Conscience compiled by the Hrant Dink Foundation; 10th Akbank Short Film Festival Award-Winning Films; and one of the most significant documentary makers of our time, Alan Berliner’s films under the title The Man Without A Camera: Alan Berliner Retrospective were screened.

Meetings on the Bridge

Sponsored by Efes, the 9th edition of Istanbul Film Festival’s Meetings on the Bridge continued to create opportunities for local and international producers, directors, screenwriters to make the first international presentations of their feature-length projects by bringing them together with representatives from various international institutions. Project owners had the chance to meet with representatives from Eurimages, Bulut Film, Giyotin Film, Dcinex, National Film Development Corporation of India, Oticons, Kalem Ajans, Hot Property Films, Torino Film Lab, Eye Film Institute, Cinéfondation, Eave, Israel Film Fund, CNC, MK2, Locarno Film Festival, Rotterdam Film Festival-Cinemart, Venice Film Festival, Polish Film Institute, Wild Bunch, Wajda School-EKRAN, Holland Film Meetings.

Established at the 30th Istanbul Film Festival as a collaborative effort between Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein film funds to provide support for co-productions between Turkey and Germany, Turkish-German Coproduction Development Fund decided this year to give support to 5 projects.

Work in Progress, a workshop designed to support films in production and open to long feature and documentary Turkish films which are mid-way through principal photography or in post-production, was organized for the third time as part of Meetings on the Bridge. This year, there were 88 applications for the 6th edition of the Film Development Workshop. The selected projects from Work in Progress and Film Development workshops received their prizes at a ceremony held on April 17 at the French Palace.

The 3 workshops, 5 master classes and 3 film chats held within the framework of the Meetings on the Bridge provided both filmlovers and film professionals information and insight regarding many issues from Eurimages submissions to the digitization of movie theatres, from pitching scripts to creating alternative media at times of crisis, from getting the right music to the relationship between literature and film.

Next year, Istanbul Film Festival once again will meet with cinephiles in April.