2019 | 56th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival

Türkan Şoray adorns Festival poster

Mavi Boncuk | 56th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival begins!

The Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, Turkey’s longest running film event, is counting down the hours to its 56th edition. Opening on October 26, the Festival will be based around the theme “Return to Roots” and screen a total of 66 films by 69 directors from 29 countries 

Presented by the Mayor of Municipal Antalya, Muhittin Böcek, the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival is directed this year by Ahmet Boyacıoğlu, screenwriter, director, and co-founded of the Festival on Wheels. Cansel Çevikol Tuncer takes over as Executive Director and Başak Emre as the Festival’s artistic director. The Antalya Film Forum is headed by Olena Yershova Yıldız.

After being dropped two years ago, the National Competitions are returning home to Antalya in 2019. Of the 50 submissions received, a shortlist of 10 films will compete in the National Feature Film Competition, and eight of them will be premiering in Turkey. A further six films will make their world premieres at the 56th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival. 

Breath (Soluk), dir. Özkan Yılmaz

Chronology (Kronoloji), dir. Ali Aydın

La Belle Indifference (Küçük Şeyler), dir. Kıvanç Sezer

Love, Spells and All That (Aşk, Büyü, Vs.), dir. Ümit Ünal

Not Knowing (Bilmemek), dir. Leyla Yılmaz

Omar and Us (Omar ve Biz), dir. Maryna Er Gorbach & Mehmet Bahadır Er

Steppe (Bozkır), dir. Ali Özel

The Adventures of Şukran the Lame (Topal Şükran’ın Maceraları), dir. Onur Ünlü

The Antenna (Bina), dir. Orçun Behram

Walnut Tree (Ceviz Ağacı), dir. Faysal Soysal

These films will compete across 14 categories for total prize money of TL 720 thousand, including the TL 250 thousand award for Best Film. The National Feature Film Competition Jury, chaired by Turkish director Zeki Demirkubuz, will decide on the winners. He is joined on the jury by cinematographer, Emre Erkmen, author and screenwriter, Latife Tekin, actor and screenwriter, Mert Fırat, and actor and producer, Şebnem Bozuklu.

The 56th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival’s Honorary Awards will be presented to veteran actors, Selma Güneri and Ahmet Mekin. Güneri is known above all for her remarkable performances in Road without End (Bitmeyen Yol, 1965), I Live as Long as I Die (Ben Öldükçe Yaşarım, 1965) and The Last Birds (Son Kuşlar, 1966), which won her the Best Female Actor Award at the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival in 1966. And Mekin, one of Turkish cinema’s outstanding male leads and character actors, has starred in countless classics from The Wedding (Düğün, 1973) to The Girl with the Red Scarf (Selvi Boylum, Al Yazmalım, 1977).

The Opening Ceremony will also mark the restoration of the Yıldırım Önal Tribute Award given by the Turkish Association of Contemporary Film Actors (ÇASOD) to an actor of excellence on both stage and screen. The award, which was withdrawn two years ago, will be presented on the opening night to Can Kolukısa. A stage actor who launched his film career in 1976 with Zeki Ökten’s King of the Doormen (Kapıcılar Kralı), Kolukısa went on to star in numerous high-profile films, including The Postman (Postacı, 1984), The Woman Who Must Be Hanged (Asılacak Kadın, 1985), You Sing Your Songs (Sen Türkülerini Söyle, 1986), Selamsiz’s Band (Selamsız Bandosu, 1987), Arabesque (Arabesk, 1988), Blue Exile (Mavi Sürgün, 1992) and Dreams, Reality and Cinema (Düş, Gerçek, Bir De Sinema, 1995). Alongside his film performances, Kolukısa is also a familiar face from popular television series such as Ivy Mansion (Asmalı Konak), Borders of Love (Yabancı Damat), Lady’s Farm (Hanımın Çiftliği), The Magnificent Century (Muhteşem Yüzyıl) and Wounded Love (Vatanım Sensin).