Turkish Films

You may not think of Turkey as being a great country for film making but there are actually a number of Turkish films that have been created over the years. Due to this popularity there are now many film festivals that take place all over the country throughout the year and attract a number of tourists. Within 2010 there have already been a number of films released including Yahsi Bati directed by Omer Faruk Sorak, Bal directed by Semih Kaplanoglu which has won a Golden Bear Award and Recep Ivedik 3 directed by Togan Gokbakar which was the sequel to Recep Ivedik and Recep Ivedik 2. The latter film opened across Germany and Austria on February 11 and across Turkey on February 12, 2010. It was listed as being (2010-02-12) number one in the Turkish box office chart taking a worldwide first weekend total of $8,665,889.

One of the main festivals to enjoy Turkish films is the Istanbul International Film Festival. This is reported to be the first and oldest international film festival in the country and is held every year in April, having started in 1982. Initially there were only six films shown under the title of ‘Film Week’ as part of the International Istanbul Festival. One of the main aims of this festival is to encourage and promote films in the Turkish cinema market. In 1984, the film festival had gained enough interest for it to be run on its own and in 1985 national and the international competition sections were included. In 1987 the Cinema Honorary Awards were established and in following years the festival became so popular that it was considered to be one of the major film festivals in the world.

In 1989 the festival became accredited having been recognized as a competitive and specialized festival. It was at this point that the original name of Istanbul Film days was changed to the Istanbul International Film Festival. Over the years there have been many new awards given out at the festivals to honour Turkish films. In 1996 the Lifetime Achievement Awards and Cinema Honorary Awards were created and in 2007 the Council of Europe Film Award was established and given to a film from the Human Rights and Cinema section. In 2006 the festival established what became known as the meeting platform with the aim of bringing European film institutions and Turkish directors and producers together.

More about Turkish Films:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Turkish_films

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Turkish_films