Istanbul announces Meetings on the Bridge line-up
- The tenth edition of Istanbul Film Festival's industry section will for the first time include international projects and a training programme
The tenth edition of Meetings on the Bridge, Istanbul Film Festival's industry section, will take place from 11-17 April and, for the first time, will include three projects from neighbouring countries: Georgia, Bulgaria and Iran.
Georgian director Tinatin Kajrishvili and producer Lasha Khalvashi, who came to prominence with the Berlinale 2014 title Brides [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Tinatin Kajrishvili
film profile], are bringing the project Manji; from Bulgaria, first-time feature-film director Rouzie Hassanova is teaming up with producer Gergana Stankova for Radiogram [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]; and Iran's Majid Barzegar (known as the writer-director of Parviz) will produce the first feature film by Sadaf Foroughi, Forgiveness.
These three projects will take part in the Film Project Development Workshop, a training programme on script development, production, distribution and marketing led by experienced filmmakers and trainers, including producer Amra Baksic Camo, and script consultants Anita Voorham, Katriel Schory, marketing director Xristina Pelekani and Tobias Pausinger.
The ten Turkish projects, two of which are documentaries, chosen from a total of 120 submissions, include The Announcement by Mahmut Fazıl Coşkun (Yozgat Blues [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Wrong Rosary), The Hunt by Emre Akay (Tales from Kars) and Iguana Tokyo by Kaan Müjdeci (Sivas [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]).
The awards set to be granted to the selected projects from the Film Project Development Workshop are: the Turkey Ministry of Tourism and Culture Support Award ($10,000), the Melodika Sound Post-Production Award, the French National Cinema Centre (CNC) Support Award (€10,000) and the Mediterranean Film Industry (MFI) Script Workshop Award.
The full list of selected projects can be found here.
The Work in Progress Workshop, which aims to support feature-length films at the post-production stage, will take place for the fourth time, and will present four fiction films and one documentary, including Frenzy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Emin Alper
film profile] by Emin Alper (Beyond the Hill [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Emin Alper
film profile]) and Dust Cloth [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ahu Öztürk
film profile] by Ahu Öztürk (Tales from Kars).
The projects are eligible for the Color-ist Award (consisting of post-production services), the Başka Sinema Award (independent distribution support) and the Efes Award, worth $10,000.
The full list of selected projects can be found here.
The Turkish-German Co-Production Development Fund, which has funded films such as last year's Cineuropa Prize winner Come to My Voice [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hüseyin Karabey
film profile], will also continue to support various projects. In 2014, the fund gave out a total of €150,000 to nine movies, including Ümit Köreken's Blue Bicycle [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which will now take part in the Work in Progress Workshop.
Over its ten years of existence, Meetings on the Bridge has helped 30 film projects to reach completion and has raised funding of nearly €430,000 for 36 different projects.
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