International Antalya Film Festival

50th International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival  (4- 11th October 2013); organized in collaboration with Antalya Metropolitan Municipality and the Antalya Culture and Art Foundation (AKSAV) unwrapped with a spectacular reception at Harrington Park Resort on Friday the 4^th of October, followed by a grand opening ceremony at Glass Pyramid last night.

The Mayor of Antalya City and the Honorary President of AKSAV; Prof. Mustafa Akaydın and The President of AKSAV Tufan Dağıstanlı welcomed guests including; Oscar winning director Asghar Farhadi and the chair of the national feature films competition jury, actress Turkan Soray.

Mr. Akaydin said; this journey began in 1964. Our main objective this year is to commemorate the architects of the festival with very special events to mark the 50^th year.  The festival made a great start and on behalf of the people of Antalya, we send the peaceful and loving messages of the art of cinema to everyone.

Asghar Farhadi " I love Yılmaz Güney "

Festival’s honorary guest, Oscar winning Iranian director’s Asghar Farhadi and his leading actor Ali Mustafa met with the audience after the noon screening of his latest work “Le Passé” for which Berenice Bejo won a best leading actress award at the 67th Cannes Film Festival this year.

Answering the festivalgoers’ questions, Mr. Farhadi cited his love of Yilmaz Guney and Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s films.

Mr Farhadi also said that the story of the “Le Passé” (The Past) demanded the film to be shot in France instead of Iran. “If it was shot in Iran, it would have been a totally different film” he added.

The director continued; “I'm not taking the path of political filmmaking because, I do not believe political films.  I prefer shooting the dramatic stories of the people and family relations. We are able to find the politics, morality and the family issues in the human relationships anyway.” He also answered a question on whether he had a preference between screenwriting and directing; “I find them both very hard works at times however, I am more energetic when I write, I put every little detail in my scripts and I enjoy it very much.”

Grand Opening

50^th Anniversary evening began with a tribute to Tuncel Kurtiz and Turgut Özakman who recently lost their lives. Mr. Farhadi and the famous names of the Turkish Cinema including; Göksel Arsoy, Nebahat Çehre, Ediz Hun, Fatma Girik, Suna Selen, Güler Ökten, Yusuf Sezgin, Süleyman Turan  and Eşref Kolçak attended the ceremony was held at the magnificent Glass Pyramid.

1964’s first ever Golden Orange recipients Turkan Soray and Izzet Gunay were awarded after their 50 years in cinema.  The greatest musician Cahit Berkay performed the unforgettable film tunes with Antalya Symphony Orchestra at the evening.

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