Akbank short film festival set to start

ISTANBUL-Hürriyet Daily News

The festival will screen short films from different regions and cultures through March 29.

This year’s Akbank Short Film Festival will take place between March 19 and 29 and will feature a number of directors from Turkey and abroad, as well as atelier works and seminars.

The program is set to host movies from different regions and cultures.

The “International Section” of the program includes movies from Germany, the United States, Spain, France, Belgium, Brazil, Finland, Cuba, Colombia, Argentina, Australia, Norway, Italy, Hungary, Israel and Canada.

Movies that have received awards from prestigious film festivals such as Cannes, Clermont-Ferrand, Rotterdam, Milan, Berlin and Sydney will also be screened during the event.

This year, the festival’s “From short to long” section will host director Ümit Ünal, who will also participate in an exclusive seminar to share his experiences in directing films.

The Documentary Cinema section of the film will host Can Dündar as a documentarist. The documentaries of legendary Turkish filmmaker Yılmaz Güney will be shown while Dündar will also share his experiences with audiences.

The “Experiences” section of the festival, meanwhile, will host German director Sebastian Wiegaertner, who will present his project titled “Shooting with HD-DSLR.” Wiegaertner will also discuss the visual aesthetics of filmmaking in his section.

The exclusive screenings of the Akbank Short Film Festival will feature movies by Turkish directors such as Rüya Arzu Köksal, Aysim Türkmen and Mehmet Özgür Candan.

A new atelier program will be the main attraction of the festival during which Türkmen, Erol Mintaş, Umut Aral and Emre Akay will discuss the mechanics of directing short films.

At the end of the festival, organizers will hand out awards for best festival short, best fiction and best documentary film.

The program will feature 100 movies, 40 screenings, as well as 11 seminars and atelier works.