Meetings on the Bridge has contributed to the completion of 29 film projects over the past 9 years, holding workshops for the first international presentations of feature-length fiction and documentary projects, and films still in production, and organised panels, master classes, and forums geared towards film professionals.

Numerous projects were supported by the Film Project Development Workshop, the Work in Progress Workshop, and the German-Turkish Co-Production Development Fund within the scope of Meetings on the Bridge, and the support of Anadolu Efes, which has been the Theme Sponsor of the Istanbul Film Festival's “Turkish Cinema” section for 28 years. Meetings on the Bridge, which has raised close to 430.000 Euros for 36 different projects since it began in 2006, will continue developing in its 10th year.

10th Year Developments from Meetings on the Bridge

In its 10th year, Meetings on the Bridge will organise an educational programme for the projects chosen for the Film Development Workshop in order to increase the effectiveness of presentations. In addition to this preliminary preparatory programme, which will be held in March 2015, films that have proved successful in Meetings on the Bridge workshops will be screened at universities free-of-charge. The Meetings on the Bridge screenings, beginning at Istanbul Bilgi University, will continue throughout the year at other universities, including Galatasaray and Kadir Has.

Applications for Meetings on the Bridge Continue

• The deadline for the Film Development Workshop is extended: The final application date will be 15 January 2015.
• Applications for the Work in Progress Workshop will continue until 2 March 2015
• Applications for the German-Turkish Co-Production Fund have begun

The final application deadline for the Film Development Workshop, to be held on 15-16 April 2015, has been extended to Thursday, 15 January 2015. The Film Development Workshop where directors, screenwriters, and producers give the first international presentations for their feature-length fiction or documentary projects, is aimed to create opportunities for finding the necessary support to initiate the production process.

In addition to the preparatory process and presentation technique training provided each year, this year there will be a comprehensive programme for the director, screenwriter, and producers of the projects selected from among the applications, which are open to different genres, such as horror, fantasy, and comedy. Following preliminary preparations, director, producer, and/or screenwriters will be given the chance to meet one-on-one with representatives from international production, distribution, fund, market, and broadcasting corporations.

At the end of the workshop, the Republic of Turkey's Ministry of Tourism and Culture Support Award of 10.000 USD, the Melodika Sound Post-Production Award, theCNC (French National Cinema Centre) Support Award of 10.000 EUR, and the MFI (Mediterranean Film Institute) Screenwriting Workshop Award will all find their recipients following the international jury's evaluation.

The deadline to apply to the Work in Progress Workshop, aiming to create opportunities for projects to find the necessary support in order to complete the production process, is
Monday, 2 March. The directors and producers of the films selected for the workshop will hold presentations open only to industry professionals (distributers, festival or fund directors, TV channel representatives) as part of Meetings on the Bridge. At the end of the workshop, films selected by the international jury will be eligible to receive the Anadolu Efes Award of 10.000 USD, the Color-ist Award, to be given for the first time this year for colour and online editing, and the Başka Sinema Award, enabling the screening of the selected film in Başka Sinema theatres and exempt from the virtual print fee.

Applications for the German-Turkish Co-Production Development Fund, created through the collaboration of Meetings on the Bridge, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, and Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein Film Funds, and with the support of the Republic of Turkey's Ministry of Tourism and Culture, have begun. Aiming to encourage co-productions between the two countries, the German-Turkish Co-Production Development Fund will find its recipients, as part of Meetings on the Bridge, for the fifth time.

The winners of the Meetings on the Bridge workshops and the projects that receive support from the German-Turkish Co-Production Development Fund will be announced at the Meetings on the Bridge reception to be held on Thursday evening, 16 April 2015.

Guidelines and application instructions can be obtained from film.iksv.org/en/meetingsonthebridge.

The 34th Istanbul Film Festival, organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) and sponsored by Akbank the 11th time this year, will be held between 4-19 April 2015.

10 YEARS OF MEETINGS ON THE BRIDGE IN NUMBERS

Meetings on the Bridge, taking place within the scope of the Istanbul Film Festival organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2015.

29 films have been completed in 9 years with the support of Meetings on the Bridge, sponsored by Anadolu Efes.

Film Project Development Workshop

19 of the projects which participated in the Film Project Development Workshop, held as part of the Meetings on the Bridge, were completed and realised to meet their audience.

9 of the completed films had the opportunity to have their premieres held overseas:

Zephyr, Belma Baş, 2008                                                Toronto Film Festival

Broken Mussels, Seyfettin Tokmak, 2008                        Sarajevo Film Festival

Impeccables, Ramin Matin,2008                                      Busan Film Festival

Shadows and Faces, Derviş Zaim, 2008                          Premeried in Cyprus

Come to my Voice, Hüseyin Karabey, 2009                     Berlinale Generation

Voice of my Father, Orhan Eskiköy, 2010                        Rotterdam Film Festival

Mold, Ali Aydın, 2010                                                     Venice Film Festival

Song of My Mother, Erol Mintaş, 2011                            Sarajevo Film Festivali

The Lamb, Kutluğ Ataman, 2012                                     Berlinale Panoroma

The galas of 10 of the films from the workshop were held at select festivals in Turkey:

Present Tense, Belmin Söylemez, 2008                           Istanbul Film Festival

Where is my Mother Tongue, Veli Kahraman, 2010         International Golden Boll Film Festival

Ships, Elif Refiğ, 2010                                                   Istanbul Film Festival

Toll Boot, Tolga Karaçelik, 2010                                     International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival

Blue Wave, Zeynep Dadak, Merve Kayan,2011                International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival

Yozgat Blues, Mahmut Fazıl Coşkun,2011                       Istanbul Film Festival

The Civilian, Levent Çetin, 2011                                      Istanbul Film Festival

Çekmeköy Underground, Aysim Türkmen, 2011              International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival

Spirit of Dust, Nesimi Yetik,2011                                    International Golden Boll Film Festival

Things I Cannot Tell, Esra Saydam, Nisan Dağ, 2013     Istanbul Film Festival

Work in Progress Workshop

Held as part of Meetings on the Bridge since 2012, 11 of the 15 films which participated in the Work in Progress Workshop were completed.

Four of these projects had the opportunity of having their premieres at international festivals:

Impeccables, Ramin Matin,                                             Busan International Film Festival

Sivas, Kaan Müjdeci                                                       Venice Film Festival

The Seaburners, Melisa Önel                                          Berlinale Forum

Song of My Mother, Erol Mintaş                                     Sarajevo Film Festival

Five of the films which participated in the workshop premiered at festivals in Turkey:

Circle, Derviş Zaim                                                         International Golden Boll Film Festival

Strangers in the House, Dilek Keser, U.Güneş Kaçargil   International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival

Fall from Eden, Ferit Karahan                                         International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival

Spirit of Dust, Nesimi Yetik                                            International Golden Boll Film Festival

Watch My Soundtrack, Koray Kara                                 !f Istanbul International Independent Film Festival

German-Turkish Co-Production Development Fund

The German-Turkish Co-Production Development Fund, created through the collaboration of Meetings on the Bridge, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, and Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein Film Funds, and with the support of the Republic of Turkey's Ministry of Tourism and Culture, has supported a total of 30 projects since 2010.

Meetings on the Bridge Awards

In 9 years, through Meetings on the Bridge, films and film projects have been awarded a total of 429.800 Euros.

• Films from Turkey, sharing the 317.000 Euros awarded from the German-Turkish Co-Production Development Fund:

2011 Grain, Semih Kaplanoğlu

2011 Saints, Seyfi Teoman

2011 Come to my Voice, Hüseyin Karabey

2011 Ballad of Yemen, Tunç Şahin         

2012 Dreams, Orhan Eskiköy

2012 Verge, Erhan Tahhuşoğlu

2012 Goodness Özgür Sevimli

2012 Fish, Derviş Zaim

2012 There,Outside, Emre Yeksan  

2013 Memoirs of the Wind, Özcan Alper

2013 Silence,Seren Yüce

2013 Brothers, Ömür Atay

2013 Elsa:The Tales of Caravanserai, Ezel Akay

2013 Until I Lose My Breath, Emine Emel Balcı  

2014 My Father's Wings, Kıvanç Sezer

2014 Kıtmir, Derviş Zaim

2014 Blue Bicycle, Ümit Köreken

2014 Zer, Kazım Öz

2014 Ember, Zeki Demirkubuz    

2014 Crooked House, Barış Özbiçer

• Films sharing the CNC Award's 50.000 Euros:

2010 Terrorist Upstairs, Emre Yeksan

2011 Spirit of Dust, Nesimi Yetik

2012 Dust Cloth, Ahu Öztürk

2013 Everyman For Himself, İnan Temelkuran

2014 Jarabulus, Erdem Tepegöz

• Films sharing the Ministry of Culture Award's total of 70.000 USD:

2008 Zefir, Belma Baş

2009 Come to my Voice, Hüseyin Karabey

2010 Voice of my Father, Orhan Eskiköy

2011 Yozgat Blues, Mahmut Fazıl Coşkun

2012 Motherland, Senem Tüzen

2013 The Cliff Shore, Mehmetcan Mertoğlu

2014 The Fish, Eset Alçilad

• Films sharing the Binger Lab Screenplay Scholarship worth 2.500 Euros:

2011 Blue Wave, Zeynep Dadak, Merve Kayan

2012 Lonely Child, Tolga Karaçelik

2013 Memoirs of Antoine Köpe, Nefin Dinç,

• Recipients of the Melodika Sound Post-Production Award:

2010 Voice of my Father, Orhan Eskiköy

2011 Yozgat Blues, Mahmut Fazıl Coşkun

2012 Motherland, Senem Tüzen

2013 The Cliff Shore, Mehmetcan Mertoğlu

2014 The Fragments, Rojda Akbayır

• Recipients of the MFI Screenwriting Workshop Scholarship:

2014 Passed By Censor, Serhad Karaaslan

• Recipients of the 1000 Volt Post-Production Award:

2012 Strangers in the House, Dilek Keser, Ulaş güneş Kaçargil

2013 Sivas, Kaan Müjdeci

2014 Song of My Mother, Erol Mintaş

• The 10.000 USD Efes Award:

2013 The Impeccables, Ramin Matin

• The Başka Sinema Award:

2014 Song of My Mother, Erol Mintaş

Meetings on the Bridge films were at international festivals in 2014

Like in previous years, Meetings on the Bridge films were screened and received awards from many international festivals in 2014. Kutluğ Ataman's film The Lamb, premiering at the 64th Berlin Film Festival, was amongst the best 50 films of 2014 selected by European Film Academy. Blue Wave directed by Zeynep Dadak and Merve Kayan, The Seaburnersdirectedby Melisa Önel, and Come to My Voicedirected by Hüseyin Karabey, also had their premieres at the 64th Berlin Film Festival. Erol Mintaş's debut feature Song of my Mother received the Best Film Award, and its actor Feyyaz Duman received the Best Actor Award at the Sarajevo Film Festival where the film premiered. Kaan Müjdeci’s debut Sivas received the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival and the Best Screenplay Award at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival. Child actor Doğan İzci, who received recognition for his performance in the film, was also awarded the Best Actor Award at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival. Meetings on the Bridge films also received many awards at national festivals. In addition to the international successes of the films that had their premieres overseas, Things I Can Not Tell directed by Esra Saydam and Nisan Dağ and Spirit of Dust directed by Nesimi Yetik returned from the Adana Golden Boll Film Festival with awards.