Antalya Film Festival merges local, int'l contests for stronger competition

The organizers of the annual Antalya Film Festival, which will be carried out from October 21-27 this year, have decided to merge the national and international contest categories.

"By combining the national and international contests we will have a stronger program. Thus, we will show greater support to the globalization of Turkish cinema. Today, there are almost 30 national film festivals in Turkey. But we aim to bring in the global identity that Antalya deserves," said Antalya Mayor Menderes Türel in a press conference on June 19.

The municipality wants to support film making in Antalya and turn the tourist destination into an international hub for the industry. Türel said, accordingly, they want to build a movie set and a "cinema valley" in the Boğaçay neighborhood. 

Türel said they have applied for UNESCO's Creative Cities Network in the branch of filmmaking, an attempt to strengthen the city's recognition and identity.

"This network has categories for literature, traditional art, design, music and gastronomy. Up until today, only [the southeastern province of] Gaziantep was accepted to the network in the category of gastronomy.

 Today, there are eight creative cities registered in UNESCO's network in the filmmaking category. Once accepted, we can find more opportunities for cooperation and publicity in filmmaking," said Türel.

The Antalya Film Festival will be directed by producer Zeynep Atakan. Film producer Mike Downey will be the new artistic director and Mirsad Purivatra will be the strategic consultant.

"The Antalya Film Festival, a platform built to improve cooperation in the industry and project developments are also empowered this year with a 450,000 Turkish lira [roughly $127,000]...