An Istanbul Classic: Istanbul Film Festival

Culture & Travel

6 April 2022

The 41st Istanbul Film Festival, which moviegoers eagerly await, will meet with the audience by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) between April 8 and 19. Films by 164 directors from 43 countries will compete in the 12-day festival.

Istanbul Film Festival, Turkey’s largest international cinema event, will return to the cinemas and meet with the festival audience by screening 135 feature films and 22 short films, including cult works, master directors, and new discoveries. Ticket sales will start on April 1, and screenings, talks, concerts, and special events will be held during the festival marathon with the participation of guest directors and actors.

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Details on the Festival Program

Celebrating the 41st anniversary, Istanbul Film Festival makes its opening with the movie Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush (2022), which made its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2022 and won the Best Lead Performance (Meltem Kaptan), the Best Screenplay, the Art Cinemas Association Award.

Meetings on the Bridge, a co-production, training, and networking platform that brings together producers, directors, and screenwriters from Turkey and neighboring countries with international film professionals, and the main sponsor of Anadolu Efes, will be held on April 14-15-16.

As part of the “Turkish Classics from Past to Present” section of the 41st Istanbul Film Festival, the 1953 production “Expected Song,” produced by Cahide Sonku, the first female director of Turkish cinema and starring Zeki Müren, will meet with the audience once again with its renewed copy.

The excitement of the competition at the Istanbul Film Festival will begin on April 8. The winners of the International Competition, National Competition, National Documentary Competition, National Short Film Competitions, and the films that won the FIPRESCI, Seyfi Teoman First Film Award, and Young Master Award will be announced at the closing and award ceremony to be held on Tuesday, April 19.

Films in the Young Masters section, where the first or second films shot by young directors, one of the traditional sections of the festival, will be evaluated for the first time this year by the Nespresso Young Jury, which consists of filming students aged 18-25 residing in Istanbul.

This time, in the retrospective section of the Istanbul Film Festival, 7 feature films by Italian director, producer and screenwriter Sergio Leone, who is considered one of the most creative and influential names in cinema, will be screened together for those who want to watch again, those who missed it or still miss.

This year’s screenings of the 41st Istanbul Film Festival meet the audience in 7 halls, including Atlas 1948 in Beyoğlu, Beyoğlu Cinema, Pera Museum Auditorium, CineWAM Premium+ City’s in Nişantaşı (Hall 3 and Hall 7) and Kadıköy Cinema in Kadıköy, and Kadıköy Municipality Cinematheque/Cinema House.

You can find the films that will be presented in the International Competition, National Competition, National Documentary Competition, National Short Film Competition, and Seyfi Teoman Best Debut Film, and Young Masters sections of the 41st Istanbul Film Festival below:

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Films in the International Competition

Mariner of the Mountains / Karim Aïnouz / Brazil, France, Germany, Algeria
Coma / Bertrand Bonello / France
Together, We Shall Die / Hakkı Kurtuluş, Melik Saraçoğlu / Turkey, Germany
Land of Dreams / Shirin Neshat, Shoja Azari / USA
Vortex / Gaspar Noé / France, Belgium, Monaco
Leonor will Never Die / Martika Ramirez Escobar / Philippines
Feature Film About Life / Dovile Sarutyte / Lithuania, USA
Rhino / Oleh Sentsov / Ukraine, Germany, Poland
Flux Gourmet / Peter Strickland / UK, USA, Hungary
The Innocents / Eskil Vogt / Norway, Sweden, Denmark, England, France, Finland

Films in the National Competition

The Resistance | Soner Caner | Turkey
Before the Night | Ali Kemal Çınar | Turkey, Italy
Klondike | Maryna Er Gorbach | Turkey, Ukraine
The Last Birds of Passage | İffet Eren Danışman Boz | Türkiye
Yaban | Tareq Daoud | Turkey, France
Ela and Hilmi with Ali | Ziya Demirel | Turkey
Zuhal | Nazlı Elif Durlu | Turkey
The Four Walls | Bahman Ghobadi | Turkey, England
A Night in Four Parts | Ali Kemal Güven | Turkey
Tell Me About Your Darkness | Gizem Kızıl | Turkey
Together, We Shall Die | Hakkı Kurtuluş, Melik Saraçoğlu | Turkey, Germany
Kerr | Tayfun Pirselimoğlu | Turkey, Greece, France

Films in the National Documentary Competition

Koudelka Crossing the Same River | Coşkun Aşar | Turkey
Crossroads | Mahmut Fazıl Coşkun | Turkey
This is Not Me | Jeyan Kader Gülşen, Zekiye Kaçak | Turkey
Incurable | Hakkı Kurtuluş, Melik Saraçoğlu | Turkey
Eat Your Catfish | Senem Tüzen, Adam Isenberg, Noah Amir Arjomand | USA, Turkey, Spain
Witch Trilogy 15+ | Ceylan Özgün Özçelik | Turkey
All-In | Volkan Üce | Belgium, France, The Netherlands
A New Earth is Rising | Serhat Yüksekbağ | Turkey