Akbank 6th Short Film Festival to start

Screening 98 films from 24 countries, the Akbank 6th Short Film Festival continues to aim for a joyful festival atmosphere with new sections, workshop activities, various discussions and much attendance from Turkey and other countries.

Combining various cultures and ideas, the festival, which will take place between March 1 and 11, features competitive and non-competitive sections. So far, 396 films have been submitted to the festival.

In addition to last year's sections, Festival Shorts, From Short to Long, Non-Competition Category, International Films, Special Preview, Animation Shorts and Documentaries, a new section called “Experiences” will be added to this year’s program.

In the Experiences section, Akbank Art Center will host a leading guest from the field of short film as well as his or her works. Patrice Carré will be the first guest of this section.

Patrice Carré, with broad experience in the film sector, is responsible for short film acquisitions at CinéCinéma channel, owned by Canal + in France. He also presents a TV program about short films for the channel. Experiences will screen the short film “La femme qui a vu l’ours” (Women Who Saw The Bears), directed by Patrice Carré and hold a discussion called “Methods and Criteria for Making Short Film Accessible,” where Carré will talk about his experiences in short film.

The International Films section of the Akbank Short Film Festival will host award-winning films from the world’s most prestigious festivals, such as the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, Cannes, Locarno, Rotterdam, Montpellier and Sundance Film Festivals. A selection of short films from 17 countries, including Turkey, Italy, Germany, Holland, Greece, Poland, Australia, England, Morocco, Ireland, Singapore, Austria, France, Iran, Iceland, Ukraine and Spain, will be screened.

‘From Short to Long’ hosts Barış Pirhasan

Barış Pirhasan, who began his career in cinema with short films, will share his full-length film for the first time at the festival. In addition to his short films, “The Hitch,” “Things of No Importance” and “Gül and Adem,” his first full-length film, “Küçük Balıklar Üzerine Bir Masal” (A Tale upon Little Fishes), will be screened.

This year, the Documentaries section will host Hasan Özgen’s films, including “Ateşin Göçü,” (Migration of the Fire), “Ve Taşlar Tanıktır” (And the Stones Witnessed), “Tarihin Kilidi: Çanakkal” (Çanakkale: The Lock of History) and “Gelenler, Gidenler ve Kalanlar” (Comers, Leavers and Remainders).

The Animation Shorts section will feature a selection of award-winning animation short films from England, Spain, Holland, Ireland, Germany, Australia, Poland and Turkey.

The discussions at the festival aim to bring together cinema lovers and the leading names of cinema as well as give audiences a chance to put cinematic theories into practice. The workshop activities, to be held on the third floor of the Akbank Art Center, offer a colorful atmosphere.

This year, the festival jury is composed of three different categories. Festival Shorts will be chosen by a jury composed of film writer Emine Yıldırım, producer Nadir Öperli and Akbank Short Film Festival’s coordinator and director Selim Evci.

The Best Dramatic Short Film will be chosen by a jury made up of film writer Yeşim Tabak, director Özcan Alper, actress Özgü Namal, Sabancı University Associate Professor Hasan Bülent Kahraman and Akbank Art Center’s Director Derya Bigalı.

The Best Documentary Film will be chosen by Marmara University Fine Arts Faculty Director Bülent Vardar, directors Savaş Güvezne and Mahmut Fazıl Coşkun, documentary photographer Altan Bal, and Akbank Art Center Director Derya Bigalı.

Following the evaluation process, both the Best Dramatic Film and Best Documentary Film winners will be awarded with 7,000 Turkish Liras.

The festival will be held at Akbank Sanat, and all events are free.

For further information visit www.akbankkisafilm.com  or www.akbanksanat.com