Organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), the 38th Istanbul Film Festival will be held from 5 to 16 April 2019.
The largest, most established and most influential international film event in Turkey, the festival screens more than 150 feature films, and boasts the biggest audience in Turkey.
The festival comprises five major competitions within its programme: International Competition, National Competition, Human Rights in Cinema Competition, National Documentary Competition and National Short Film Competition. The festival will once again present a selection of the bests of the fests to cult films, the most extensive showcase of films from Turkey, along with retrospectives, new discoveries, masterpieces, and hidden treasures.
National Competition
The jury to evaluate the films in the National Competition for the 38th Istanbul Film Festival will be headed by director, writer, and scriptwriter Ümit Ünal. Fellow jury members include actress Derya Alabora, actor Alican Yücesoy, cinematographer Andreas Sinanos, and writer and scriptwriter Gaye Boralıoğlu.
Factory of Masterpieces: Kubrick
This year, the festival commemorates legendary director Stanley Kubrick on the 20th anniversary of his passing. One of the special sections of the 38th Istanbul Film Festival, Factory of Masterpieces: Kubrick beckons the fans and younger generations who haven’t watched the films of this influential director to the movie theatre to the silver screen experience. Remastered copies of 13 feature films directed by Stanley Kubrick will be screened, thus presenting the director’s filmography in its entirety:
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
The Shining (1980)
Barry Lyndon (1975)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Lolita (1962)
Spartacus (1960)
Paths of Glory (1957)
The Killing (1956)
Killer’s Kiss (1955)
Fear and Desire (1953)
Turkish Classics Revisited
Each year since 2008, the Istanbul Film Festival restores Turkish classics. This year with the support of Zurich Sigorta, esteemed director Şerif Gören’s 1987 masterpiece On Kadın / Ten Women will be restored by Atlas Post Production to be screened during the festival.
Palm d’Or-winning master director Şerif Gören, who often has tackled women’s issues in his films, adapted Hüseyin Kuzu’s script to present portraits of women dealing with problems in a male-dominated world. Şerif Gören will receive the Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award this year.
On Kadın starring Türkan Şoray, who received Istanbul Film Festival’s Cinema Honorary Award in 1996, will be screened from its digital copy restored with the support of Zurich Sigorta.
Cinema Awards
The Cinema Awards of the 38th Istanbul Film Festival will be presented to four revered figures of Turkish cinema during the opening ceremony of the festival on Thursday, 4 April.
The Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Şerif Gören, the director of Yol, which brought the “Palme d’Or” to Turkish Cinema. The “Golden Boy” of Turkish Cinema, Göksel Arsoy, and the indispensable actress of the formidable female roles, Selda Alkor will receive Honorary Cinema Awards. The Outstanding Contribution to Cinema Award will go to the founding member of the Turkish Cinematheque Association, Jak Şalom.
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