04/10/2019 - The Istanbul-based gathering will screen 83 films from around the world, and will host a national and an international competition, while Brillante Mendoza will chair one of the juries

The seventh edition of the Bosphorus International Film Festival is ready to kick off. Running from 18-25 October in Istanbul, the festival will bring 83 films from 25 countries to audiences in the city’s Atlas, Beyoğlu and Kadıköy theatres. Organised by the Bosphorus Cinema Association and the Istanbul Media Academy, the festival “has an outstanding programme, underlining the significance of the seventh edition”, as Bosphorus artistic director Emrah Kılıç pointed out.

This year's Bosphorus International Film Festival will open with Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano’s The Specials [+see also:
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trailer
film profile]. Based on a real-life story, the social comedy starring Vincent Cassel and Reda Kateb, which brought the 72^nd Cannes Film Festival to a close, will be screened after the opening ceremony on 18 October.

In the competitions, and starting with the National Feature Film Competition, nine films are vying for the Golden Dolphin Award, valued at 100,000 TL (€16,000). The winner will be decided by the president of the jury, director Mahmut Fazıl Coşkun, and his fellow jury members: actress Cemre Ebuzziya, screenwriter and art director Ebru Ceylan, author Mustafa Çiftçi and actress Nalan Kuruçim. Among the selected titles are features that have already premiered at international film festivals, while one of them will world-premiere at Bosphorus. In detail, the selection includes Ant by Nazif Tunç (world premiere), Belonging [+see also:
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interview: Burak Çevik
film profile] by Burak Çevik (Turkey/Canada/France), Commitment by Semih Kaplanoğlu, Hive by Eylem Kaftan, Long Time Ago by Cihan Sağlam, The Mute by Murat Pay, Noah Land [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Cenk Ertürk (Germany/Turkey/USA), Scent of My Daughter [+see also:
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film profile] by Olgun Özdemir (Turkey/USA/France) and Trap by Seyid Çolak.

In the International Feature Film Competition, another nine movies will be eyeing five trophies, including the Best Film Award, worth 50,000 TL (€8,000). The victors will be determined by a jury under the chairmanship of Filipino director Brillante Mendoza, comprising last year’s winner, Palestinian director Bassam Jarbawi, Durban Film Festival director Chipo Zhou, Turkish actress Melisa Sözen and Bulgarian filmmaker Milko Lazarov. All of the films will be having their Turkish premiere, and they are A Dark-Dark Man [+see also:
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film profile] by Adilkhan Yerzhanov (Kazakhstan/France), Aga’s House [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Lendita Zeqiraj
film profile] by Lendita Zeqiraj (Kosovo/Croatia/France/Albania), The Criminal Man [+see also:
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film profile] by Dmitri Mamulia (Georgia/Russia), Homeward [+see also:
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film profile] by Nariman Aliev (Ukraine), Marghe and Her Mother [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] by Mohsen Makhmalbaf (Italy/UK), Mariam by Sharipa Urazbayeva (Kazakhstan), The Son [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Ines Tanović
film profile] by Ines Tanović (Bosnia and Herzegovina/Croatia/Romania/Slovenia/Montenegro), Take Me Somewhere Nice [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Ena Sendijarević
film profile] by Ena Sendijareviç (Netherlands/Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Talla by Parviz Shahbazi (Iran), which will be enjoying its international premiere.

Finally, in the short-film competitions, ten fictions and eight documentaries will compete in the National Short Fiction and Documentary Competitions, respectively, while the same number of films will participate in the equivalent international sections.

Two Honorary Awards will be given out during this year’s Bosphorus, with Filipino filmmaker Brillante Mendoza receiving his at the opening ceremony, while South Korean director Kim Ki Duk will be awarded on the closing night. Both helmers will also impart master classes to the festival audience.