Counting down to Ayvalık International Film Festival, which will be held between 14 and 19 September by the Seyir Association. This year's programme is brimming with the long-awaited domestic and foreign productions that gained acclaim at festivals worldwide. The screenings will be followed by interviews and panels on current issues in cinema. The Young Cinema programme will allow students from different universities in Turkey to meet with film professionals and gain experience working at the festival. Children's Day will be on Sunday, September 17, full of activities aimed at the younger audience.
With Azize Tan as director and Fatih Özgüven as programming consultant, the Ayvalık International Film Festival is made possible with the generous contributions of Ayvalık Municipality, The European Union's CultureCIVIC Cultural Grants Programme, Kürşat Ayvalık, the Bilginer-Melin Foundation for Art, Culture and Education in Ayvalık, the Consulate General of Netherlands, Paribu Cineverse, OGM Pictures, Mey|Diageo, Ayvalık Chamber of Commerce, Ayvalıkzade, Çöp(m)adam and the French Cultural Centre.
The Festival Poster is ready!
The Ayvalık International Film Festival believes in building strong connections with the host city. Keeping to tradition, artists living in Ayvalık were invited to contribute to the design of this year's poster. Erdem Yılmaz designed the new poster inspired by an artwork featured in Ayvalık-based artist Tunca's solo exhibition titled Bedbahtlıklar ve Yeni Hazlar (Sorrows and New Pleasures).
Since the early 2000s, Tunca's solo exhibitions have been displayed in many museums and institutions, and his work appears in several permanent collections, including the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, Proje 4L Elgiz Contemporary Art Museum, Baksı Museum, Evliyagil Museum, and Odunpazarı Modern Museum. In his work that inspired the festival poster, Tunca uses a photograph he came across at an auction years ago. This photo was apparently taken in the studio of Georg Gerlach, a maker of souvenir postcards in Berlin in the 1880s. The character Mahir, who is identified as Sabri Mahir in the photographs, seems to have acquired the nicknames Der Schreckliche Türke (The Terrible Turk) and Der Gegen Vier Männer Kämpft (Fighter of Four Men) after opening a boxing studio which was frequented by the likes of Bertolt Brecht, Egon Erwin Kisch, Vladimir Nabokov, which made Mahir's studio a popular place for literary debates. It seems there was photographic evidence that Mahir trained names such as Vicki Baum and Marlene Dietrich in this studio, but this tale turned into a myth over the years. Anyone interested in the intriguing story of Mahir, who is believed to have been born in Diyarbakır in 1890, and the work should visit the Yuri GastroBar in Küçük Han during the festival.
Mey|Diageo's "Yeni Bir …" Rising Star Award in its second year!
In its second year, the Ayvalık International Film Festival is pleased to continue the "Yeni Bir..." Rising Star Award with the contributions of Mey|Diageo, the inheritor of a 150-year-old legacy. Given to a young director, actor, screenwriter, editor, sound designer, etc., for their recent achievements in cinema regardless of category, the award reinforces the festival's mission of helping and encouraging young filmmakers. Mey|Diageo is a firm believer in the importance of culture and art in our lives, and the winner of the award worth 50,000 TL made possible with its contributions will be announced at the opening night of the festival.
This year's official "Yeni Bir..." Rising Star Award jury committee includes director, screenwriter, writer, producer and painter Tayfun Pirselimoğlu, producer Dilde Mahalli, editor and director Eytan İpeker, film critic-film programmer Nil Kural and actor Selen Uçer.
Contempt/ Le Mépris Screening in memory of Godard
In collaboration with the French Cultural Centre and Sinematek/Sinemaevi, the Ayvalık International Film Festival will be screening Contempt / Le Mépris in memory of master filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, who left behind a tremendous cinematic legacy after passing away at the age of 91.
Based on the Italian writer Alberto Moravia's novel and starring Brigitte Bardot, Michel Piccoli, American actor Jack Palance and German director Fritz Lang, Contempt / Le Mépris is one of Godard's masterpieces that questions falling in and out of love in a world of money and art.
Following the opening ceremony on the evening of 14 September at Ayvalık Municipality's Büyük Park Amphitheatre, the screenings, panels, and special children's day will be hosted at Ayvalık Municipality Vural Cinema Nejat Uygur Stage, Ayvalık Sanat Fabrikası, Küçük Han, Askev Sera, Kraft and Sabancı University Creative Technologies Workshop. The entire programme for this year's Ayvalık International Film Festival will be announced soon.