Authentic storytelling and cultural depth took center stage at Türkiye’s top film festivals this year, showcasing films that captivated audiences both locally and internationally.

TURKISH CINEMA

By Ercument Akman

Film festival season is almost over. As an annual cultural event, many of them were all over Türkiye. You can say there were more than several hot air balloons in Cappadocia.
This is also an excellent time to look at the leading festivals to find Turkish films that won or dominated the awards. Of course, other award categories ranged from acting to technical achievements and lifetime recognitions. However, we are trying to focus on the “Best Film” category, hoping that the films will make it to the US and that we will have a chance to see, enjoy, and evaluate them.

Istanbul Film Festival
The 43rd Istanbul Film Festival, held between April 17-28, was the one that started the season. Hesitation Wound (Tereddüt Çizgisi), the legal drama film written and directed by Selman Nacar, was the winner. Hesitation Wound celebrated its world premiere at the 2023 Venice Film Festival; within the Orizzonti section, it was recognized as the “Best International Feature” at the Zurich Film Festival and earned Nacar the “Best Director” award at the Arras Film Festival.
Magnolia Pictures International bought hesitation wound for Worldwide Sales. Lorna Lee Torres, head of international sales at Magnolia called the film an“… exciting, suspenseful Turkish drama with a riveting performance by Tülin Özen – we think it will be a strong standout. The film does not fall into the typical cliches of other courtroom dramas but uses urgent pacing throughout and delivers a story with real moral weight.”
Hesitation Wound has a plot that expands and builds exponentially as the film goes on, allowing both to reveal the abusive power and greed held in the Western city of Uşak.
Tülin Özen as Canan, the lawyer, makes a riveting performance over less than 24 hours, and Nacar closes the film with a one-two punch that strikes deep.
Selman Nacar is a filmmaker with an MFA in film directing from Columbia University in New York City and a trained lawyer. Nacar is a director to watch. He made a strong debut with Between Two Dawns in 2021, showing the moral failures involving an injured worker at a family’s business that premiered at San Sebastian and won “Best Film” at Torino.
In an interview, Nacar said, “As an idealistic young man, I believed that I could change society with my knowledge of law and that it was my duty to strive for a more just and peaceful life. However, until I decided to pursue cinema as a profession, there was a huge void inside me that I could not describe. For years, I changed cities, countries, and universities in search of it, and when I met cinema, this emptiness was suddenly and definitively filled.“

Adana Film Festival
The International Adana Golden Boll Film Festival is one of Türkiye’s most prestigious film festivals, which has been running for 30 years. The festival crowned Murat Firatoğlu’s One of Those Days When Hemme Dies (Hemme’nin Öldüğü Günlerden Biri).
Firatoğlu went to his 1983 birthplace, Siverek, to shoot his first feature film, taking on the leading role. His film won the “Jury Special Award” in the Orrizonti section of the 81st Venice Film before winning at the 31st Adana Golden Boll Film Festival.
The film tells the story of Eyüp, a seasonal worker under the scorching sun during a tomato harvest to pay off his debt after returning from Izmir to his sick mother’s house with his wife and three children. He works drying tomatoes but cannot earn his daily wage. Eyüp angrily wanders around the city to kill Hemme. The day ends at a wedding where he dances the folk dance of halay side by side with Hemme, as the villagers constantly distract him with unimportant tasks.
Firatoğlu studied law at Dicle University. He is a film director, screenwriter, and producer of Kurdish origin who lives in Istanbul and works as a lawyer.

Antalya Film Festival
The 2024 edition of the festival in the Turkish Mediterranean resort city of Antalya, first held in 1963, is one of Türkiye’s most renowned film events. And Fate (Mukadderat) by Nadim Güç topped the jurors’ choice for the Best Turkish Film in the 2024 edition that ran on October 5-12.
Winning “Best Female Actor” for Nur Sürer, in the role of Sultan, who lost her husband, she tells her children that she wants to get re-married immediately not to be alone. While looking for a husband, she starts a business and turns her house into a hostel. She also works at the market, inspiring other women in the town.
This is the director’s first film after honing his skills in TV serials, and he found his lead actor when he helmed Women in The Window (Camdaki Kiz).
1983 Malatya-born Nadim Güç studied radio, television, and film at Gazi University and won the “Best Film Award” in Istanbul’s Bosphorus Film Festival (October 18-25, 2024). He expressed his feelings in a pre-festival interview “I do not define myself from a place like ‘I look at a woman’s face and see her troubles.’ I like telling women’s stories because women have more depth. I can deepen women’s characters as much as I want compared to men. Since I have been able to choose a project as a director, I have never said to anyone, ‘Bring me a woman’s story.’ However, I have always liked women’s stories from the stories that came my way.”

Ankara Film Festival
The Ankara Film Festival was held for the first time in 1988. After a hiatus in 1991 primarily due to the Gulf War, the festival returned with the 35th edition held this year between November 7-15. Murat Firatoğlu’s One of Those Days When Hemme Dies (Hemme’nin Öldüğü Günlerden Biri) was chosen as “Best Picture,” repeating with another win following the Adana Golden Boll Film Festival.
The awards were presented in memory of Ankara Film Festival’s president, who passed away recently. In his opening, the festival organizer, World Mass Communication Research Foundation President İrfan Demirkol, said in memory of his wife and former festival president İnci Demirkol, “It was the most difficult and painful festival of my life. But we decided to continue this festival to keep İnci’s memory alive and to prevent the curtains from closing.”
We hope to see the winners of Turkish films at major Turkish film festivals on this side of the world. Meanwhile, Life (Hayat) is directed by Zeki Demirkubuz. The 2023 Turkish drama film was the Turkish entry for the “Best International Feature Film” at the 97th Academy Awards, hoping to make the final nomination list. Over the years, twenty-eight Turkish films have been submitted for consideration and have yet to achieve an Oscar nomination.
Last year, Germany’s entry, The Teachers’ Lounge, directed by Ilker Çatak, who was born in Berlin to Turkish parents, made that final list. ■

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Ercüment Akman was born in Istanbul. He studied architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts, Fındıklı, and pursued postgraduate studies in Urban and Regional Planning at the Technical University, Taşkışla. He worked for the Turkish Film Archives and was a film critic for national newspapers. After moving to Canada in 1978 and later to the US, he worked as an architect and served as an independent film curator. He continues to lecture on cultural issues and writes for the Turkish Cinema Newsletter. Now retired from corporate architecture, he is focusing on various book projects.