Meetings on the Bridge: 2012: New Turkish film projects get boost

Meetings On The Bridge, organized within the scope of the İstanbul Film Festival, brings together producers, directors, scriptwriters and representatives of organizations so as to continue providing opportunities for initial international presentations of new feature films, as well as setting the stage for co-productions.

Film Development Workshop which is held from 11-12 April this year has selected 12 titles. The owners of the selected projects will conduct one-to-one meetings with European producers, distributors and representatives of institutions and organizations including Eurimages, ARTE, Berlinale, Binger Lab, Cinelink, Cinemart, Torino Film Lab and Fortissimo Films.

Five films have been selected this year by the Meetings On The Bridge consultative committee and will participate in the Works in Progress workshop at their offline montage stages. At the end of the workshop, the film to be selected by the international jury consisting of 3 members will be presented with the 1000volt Post Production Award.

Open to feature films from Turkey which have completed at least 50% of their shooting stage or which are at their post-production stage, the Work in Progress workshop will be starting this year, again within the framework of Meetings On The Bridge. During the workshop aimed at supporting film projects from Turkey at the production stage, producers will find the chance to make the initial international presentations of their films.

Turkish-German Coproductions

It has been decided that 7 projects selected from among the 13 applications forwarded to the Turkish-German Co-Productions Development Fund, established through the cooperation of 2011 İstanbul Film Festival-Meetings On The Bridge Platform, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein Film Funds, to receive support. The projects to be supported will be announced during the Meetings On The Bridge award reception. This fund with a total budget of 150,000 Euros, established by the above-mentioned three institutions which are pioneers in their fields with the purpose of increasing cultural cooperation between the two countries and supporting co-productions, is open to all Turkish-German co-productions not started to be shot yet.

Turkish-Dutch Coproduction Meetings

Within the scope of the 400th Anniversary of the establishment of Turkish-Dutch diplomatic relations, the Turkish-Dutch Co-Production Meetings and Panels will be organized through the cooperation of İstanbul Film Festival MeetingsOnTheBridge and Netherlands Film Festival - Holland Film Meetings. These meetings aiming at bringing together film industry professionals from the two countries so as to pave the way for co-productions will be held in İstanbul in April and in Utrecht in September.

Topics including co-productions, international festivals and funds, new media and distribution channels were taken up during the Meetings On The Bridge workshops by expert professionals and cinema professionals, and proposals for solutions were discussed. The program for the workshops which will be open to all film makers and cinema fans is to be announced in the month of March.

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 Work in Progress: Selected films

Cennetten Kovulmak / Fall From Eden directed by Ferit Karahan, Producers : Ferit Karahan, Serdar Temel

Devir / The Circle / directed by Derviş Zaim, Producer: Derviş Zaim

Evdeki Yabancılar / Strangers in the House / directed by: Dilek Keser, Ulaş Güneş Kacargil Producer: Özkan Yılmaz

Kumun Tadı / Sea Burners /directed by : Melisa Önel, Producers: Yamaç Okur, Melisa Önel

Sev Beni / Sense of Sex directed by Maryna Gorbach and Mehmet Bahadir Er, Producers: Olena Yeshova, Mehmet Bahadır Er

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INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS (2002-2011)

• 2011: Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia) by Nuri Bilge Ceylan wins Grand Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival
• 2011: Bizim Büyük Çaresizliğimiz (Our Grand Despair) by Seyfi Teoman was in competition at Berlin Film Festival
• 2010: Çoğunluk (Majority) by Seren Yüce wins Lion of the Future at Venice Film Festival
• 2010: Bal (Honey) by Semih Kaplanoğlu wins Golden Bear in Berlin Film Festival
• 2009: Pandora'nın Kutusu (Pandora's Box), Yeşim Ustaoğlu wins Golden Shell-Best Film and Best Actress Awards at San Sebastian Film Festival
• 2009: Uzak İhtimal (Wrong Rosary) by Mahmut Fazıl Coşkun wins Tiger Award at Rotterdam Film Festival
• 2008: Üç Maymun (Three Monkeys) by Nuri Bilge Ceylan wins Best Director at Cannes Film Festival
• 2008: Gitmek (My Marlon and Brando) by Hüseyin Karabey wins Best New Narrative Filmmaker Award at Tribeca Film Festival
• 2006: İklimler (Climates) by NuriBilge Ceylan wins FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes Film Festival
• 2002: Uzak (Distant) by Nuri Bilge Ceylan wins Grand Prix and Best Actor Prize at Cannes Film Festival

 

News archive for the 2012 Meetings on The Bridge:

MEETINGS ON THE BRIDGE 2011

In its sixth year, the Meetings on the Bridge (MoB), aims at creating a platform, a meeting point for the film industry within the frame of the 30th Istanbul Film Festival. The programme continues to bring together Turkish and European producers, directors, scriptwriters and representatives of institutions to provide the opportunity for Turkish filmmakers to make the first international presentations of their feature film projects, and build a platform for co-productions.

Meetings on the Bridge is introducing the Turkish-German Co-Production Film Development Fund in collaboration with Medienboard Berlin- Brandenburg and Hamburg Schleswig Holstein Funds and the support of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism,with a budget of 150.000 Euro .
In addition, for the first time, Turkish-French Co-production Meetings and meetings with Italian Filmmakers Meetings will take place.

The guests of this year's platform include Eric Garandeau, President of CNC; Marit van den Elshout, Head of Cinemart / Rotterdam Film Festival; Marten Rabarts, Artistic Director of Binger Lab; Claire Launay from ARTE; Mira Staleva from Sofia Film Lab; Roberto Olla, Executive Director - Eurimages; Savina Neirotti, Head of Torino Film Lab; Sonja Heinen, Head of Berlinale Co-production Market; Thibaut Bracq, Head of Paris Project; Katriel Schory, Head of Israel Film Fund; and award winning producers such as Cedomir Kolar (No Man's Land), Ilann Girard (Lebanon, Goodbye Bafana, March of the Penguins); and Stéphane Parthenay (Pyramid and co-producer of Three Monkeys).

Film Development Workshop, 13-14 April

The fourth Film Development Workshop, which receive great attention from cinema professionals, organised as part of the 30th Istanbul Film Festival will take place on April 13 and 14 this year.

The producers and directors of the 12 film projects selected from among the 99 projects submitted this year will be having one-to-one meetings with producers, distributors and the representatives of international institutions including Rotterdam Film Festival, Eurimages, ARTE, Cinemart, Binger Lab, Torino Film Lab, and Fortissimo Films. Through these meetings, directors and producers of the elected projects find the opportunity to make the preliminary preparations and spadework for international co-production workshops and markets they will be taking part in. They also get the chance to realize the initial contact with producers and distributors who are interested in their projects and perform their international presentations without leaving the country.

At the end of the meetings, two projects will receive the $10.000 Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism Development support, the 25.000 TL worth Melodika Post-Production Support, and 10.000 Euro CNC Support. For the first time this year, Dutch film institution Binger Lab will award a project with 2.500 Euro worth of Script Development Scholarship.

The award winning project of 2008, Zefir (Zephyr) by Belma Baş was completed in 2010 and it received the Artistic Achievement Award at the 51st Thessaloniki Film Festival and the Rajata Chakoram Award (Silver Crow Pheasant) in the 'Best Debut Film' category at the 15th Kerala International Film Festival. Zephyr continues the festival tour.

The shooting of Sesime Gel (Come to My Voice) by Hüseyin Karabey, that received the 2009 award, will start in October 2011 and the shooting of Babamın Sesi (Voice of My Father) by Orhan Eskiköy - Zeynel Doğan, one of the award winning projects of 2010, will start in May 2011. Another award winning project, Üst Kattaki Terörist (Terrorist Upstairs) by Emre Yeksan, is currently in script writing stage. Ebedi Uykusuz (Last Sleepless) by İlke Yeşilay, which was considered praiseworthy by the jury, received the 10,000 Euro support award of the Balkan Fund at the 51st Thessaloniki Film Festival.

The Film Development Workshop is frequented especially by European producers and distributors who wish to get informed on film projects and meet the filmmakers . This year, 14 film professionals will conduct meetings with the producers and directors of the projects .

Turkish-German Co-Production Film Development Fund
The Istanbul Film Festival - Meetings on the Bridge, in collaboration with Medienboard Berlin- Brandenburg and Hamburg Schleswig Holstein Funds with the support of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, is proud to set up for the first time this year, the Turkish and German Co-production Development Fund. The foundations of the fund had been laid during the Turkish-German Co-Productions Panel conducted within the scope of the Meetings On The Bridge Platform of the 29th Istanbul Film Festival.

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TURKISH FILM INDUSTRY 2010 REPORT

Following the international acclaim of several Turkish films and the growing share of Turkish Films at Turkey's box office numbers, Turkish film industry has become an interesting field to observe in the last few years. These developments have continued in 2010. In 2009 the number of new Turkish releases were 69. In 2010, this number slightly dropped to 65, however the number of admissions for Turkish films increased to 21,706,524, from 18,790,700. This was a crucial increase, after the sharp drop in 2009. In 2008 the number of admissions for Turkish Films was
23,074,291.

In 2009, the total number of admissions for Turkish and foreign releases was 36,899,954. In 2010 with an 11% increase, the total number of admissions reached 41,064,394. Turkish films share in the total admissions has reached 53%. In comparison to other countries, where there is no quota for foreign releases this is an unusually high share. However when one considers that in 2009 the total admissions in France, Germany, Poland and South Korea were 200,000,000, 146,000,000, 39,000,000 and 156,000,000 respectively, the relatively small size of Turkish market becomes more apparent. Still this also highlights the potential for growth.

The average admissions per Turkish films is 334,000. However when you study the box office numbers of each and every new Turkish film released, you observe that only the top 12 films were able to sell over 334,000 tickets, and top five Turkish hits shared the 62% of the admissions. These numbers tell us that, the increase in production and the increase in admissions are not really related processes in Turkish Cinema. The industry has been able to produce a few popular movies every year drawing millions to the theaters, however the general admissions level for less commercially oriented movies are able to reach to only a limited number of audience. The most striking example of this is Semih Kaplanoğlu's Bal (Honey), which won the Golden Bear in 2010. The film was released with 32 copies and barely reached 32,000 admissions. What is more disappointing is the fact that in the box office list for Turkish films in 2010, there are 29 more films under Bal. So out of the 65 Turkish films released, 45% were under 30,000 admissions.

This unequal distribution of admissions, raise important questions regarding the sustainability of growth of production and the development of the industry. One of the main reasons for such picture is that the distributors in Turkey, take minimum risk and leave almost all the distribution, PR and marketing expenses to the producer. Hence, they could easily distribute Turkish Films to support Turkish Cinema, even though if they don't expect any commercial gain. Sometimes for the distributor it is really difficult to find enough number of theaters, or to keep the film showing more than one or two weeks, but still many films are granted the chance to have a theatrical release and enter the annual statistics. Thanks to the highly risk averse practices of distributors in Turkey.