Adana Golden Boll Film Festival 2011 Winners

25-09-2011

Adana Golden Boll Film Festival 2011 Winners

By Alin Tasciyan

ADANA: The awards of the 18. Adana Golden Boll Film Festival (www.goldenbollfilmfestival.com) held from 17-25 September 2011 in the historic Turkish city of Adana were shared between four films which critisize various aspects of the contemporary society. The festival line up this year was a bold selection of taboo breaking films mainly dealing with the theme of confrontation. Nine of the 14 films in the main competition were debuts of their directors and seven were world premiers.

Political satire The Extremely Tragic Story of Celal Tan and His Family written and directed by Onur Unlu won the Golden Boll for Best Film and Best Screenplay. The jury presided over by acclaimed Turkish auteur Dervis Zaim gave a special award to the ensemble cast of this film for their outstanding performance. Celal Tan who commits a murder and his family who hide this murder, even though they all witness it, is a metaphor of denied controversial crimes of states and ruling classes.

The prestigious Yılmaz Guney Award was dedicated to Future Lasts Forever written and directed by Ozcan Alper who is well known for his elegiac drama Autumn (2008). Future Lasts Forever which premiered in Toronto Film Festival is a sad love story set against the background of the unnamed war between the state and ethnical Kurdish population in Eastern Anatolia. Future Lasts Forever also makes a correlation between the exiled and disappeared Armenian population of Anatolia and the disappeared political detainees in Turkey of the last decades. The film also won the Best Cinematography (Feza Caldiran), Best Music (Mustafa Biber), Best Actor (Durukan Ordu) and Turkish Film Critics Society - SİYAD Awards.

Famous photographer Cemil Agaciklioglu won the Best Director award with his debut film September, an unusual love triangle between lonely, estranged characters all threatened by death for various reasons. The film was also awarded for its editing. September's young leading actress Gorkem Yeltan shared the Best Actress award with Hatice Aslan for her performance as a porn star in The Body. Aslan is internationally acclaimed for her part in the Three Monkeys by Nuri Bilge Ceylan.

The producer of Autumn, Serkan Acar won the Jury Special Award with his directoral debut Love and Revolution. Adali Aksoy was selected as the Best Art Director for his meticulous work in this period drama. The young lovers of the unfinished revolution were named as the Most Promising Actor (Gun Koper) and Actress (Deniz Denker).

The audience award went to the boldest film of the selection Simurg, a docudrama based on the testimonies of the six survivors of the 1996 hunger strike in Turkish jails who suffer from Wernicke Korsakoff illness.

18. Adana Golden Boll Film Festival Awards:

Promising Young Actor ex - aequo:

Gun Koper for Love and Revolution / Produced by Kuzey Film (www.kuzeyfilm.com) and Film Fabrik (www.filmfabrik.net)

Hakan Kurtaş for The Body/ produced by Ran Productions

Promising Young Actress:

Deniz Denker for Love and Revolution

Best Sound Design:

Burak Topalakci for September/ Produced by Arti Film (www.artifilm.com.tr)

And Losers Club/ Produced by Ekip Film (www.ekipfilm.com) and Tiglon (www.tiglon.com.tr)

Best Editing:

Taner Sarf / September

Best Art Director:

Adalı Aksoy / Love and Revolution

Jury Special Award:

The ensemble cast of The Extremely Tragic Story of Celal Tan and His Family/ production company Eflatun Film (www.eflatunfilm.net).

Best Supporting Actor:

Tuna Orhan / A Serious Matter/ Produced by ACR Yapim (www.acryapim.com)

Best Supporting Actress:

Şeyla Halis / The Body

Best Actor:

Durukan Ordu / Future Lasts Forever/ Produced by Nar Film (www.narfilm.com) Turkey, French company Arizona Films (www.arizonafilms.net) and German company Una Film

Best Actress ex-aequo:

Hatice Aslan / The Body & Gorkem Yeltan / September

Best Music:

Mustafa Biber / Future Lasts Forever

Best Cinematography:

Feza Çaldıran / Future Lasts Forever

Jury Special Award:

Love and Revolution / Serkan Acar

Best Screenplay:

Onur Unlu / The Extremely Tragic Story of Celal Tan and His Family

Best Director:

Cemil Agacikoglu / September