Meetings on the Bridge continues to gather producers, the director, and screenwriters from Turkey and neighbouring countries with international film professionals.

Organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) within the scope of the Istanbul Film Festival, Meetings on the Bridge will take place between 13-17 April with the support of Anadolu Efes. Fiction feature film workshops, documentary projects and presentations of the films in post-production stage from Turkey and neighbouring countries will be presented to international cinema professionals in the Meetings on the Bridge Film Development Workshop, Work in Progress, and Neighbours workshops.

In the 15^th year of Meetings on the Bridge, a new award will be added to the supports given to the filmmakers in the workshops organized with the contributions of TRT. TRT Special Award amounting 50,000 TL, will start to be given to a project from Turkey at the TRT Film Development Workshop.

This year, 112 applications have been received from Turkey for Meetings on the Bridge Film Development Workshop. The applications have been evaluated by the advisory and reading board; 10 fiction and 1 documentary film projects have been selected to attend to the workshop. International presentations of the projects will take place in Algeria on April 15-16.

Being one of the previous years’ participants of the Meeting on the Bridge, Ali Vatansever, who opened his first film "Saf" at the Toronto International Film Festival, makes his first presentation of his project "Agoni" at the Film Development Workshop this year. Salih Demir, director of “Cano” is rejoining Meetings on the Bridge with his new project “The Treasure” and the experienced producer, Yamaç Okur, is joining the workshop with Sinan Öztürk, who is the director of “Çukur” and the adaptation of Alper Canıgüz’s novel “Kan ve Gül”. Melisa Önel, who made the premiere of her first film “Kumun Tadı” at Berlin Film Festival is making the presentation of her new project “Aniden”, which she developed with Feride Çiçekoğlu. Emre Akay, who participated to Meeting on the Bridge with ‘Av’, which is one of the first films of genre cinema, is presenting his new project “Ebedi Alev”. Besides experienced directors, the young directors, Ziya Demirel, Ozan Yoleri, Emre Sert, and Gözde Yetişkin, who took part in many festivals are joining the workshop, too. Meetings on the Bridge also presents documentary projects in its selection every year. This year’s documentary project is Ali Özkul’s “O Yaratıklardan Biri”, which will be the production of Ceylan Özgün Özçelik, noted for triology of “Kaygı ve Cadı.”

Projects Selected for the Film Development Workshop

Agoni (dir. Ali Vatansever, prod. Selin Vatansever Tezcan, Oya Özden – Terminal Film)

Aniden (dir. Melisa Önel, prod. Alara Hamamcıoğlu – Vigo Film)

Ebedi Alev (dir. Emre Akay, prod. Ali özgür Baltacı – Emre Akay Film)

Güzel Bir Gece (dir. Ozan Yoleri, prod. Arda Çiltepe, Ilgın Coşar – Vigo Film)

Hazine (dir. Salih Demir, prod. Çekdar Erkıran – Layen Film)

İki Gözlüler (dir. Ziya Demirel, prod. Anna Maria Aslanoğlu – İstos Film)

Kan and Gül (dir. Sinan Öztürk, prod. Yamaç Okur – Ay Yapım)

O Yaratıklardan Biri (dir. Ali Özkul, prod. Ceylan özgün Özçelik – EHY Film Prodüksiyon)

Orada Mısın? (dir. Aysim Türkmen, prod. Nesra Gürbüz – Monomit Film)

Pastoral (dir. Michael Önder, prod. Joseph Erçelik Amado – Bluff Film)

Rahmet (dir. Emre Sert, Gözde Yetişkin prod. Suzan Güverte, Şebnem Kitiş – Ptot Film, Güverte Film, Emre & Gözde Film)

Project teams will make script, production, pitching, marketing and social media trainings with internationally experienced filmmakers and trainers in March.

The owners of the Film Development Workshop awards will be determined after the negotiations with international jury.

Film Development Workshop Awards:

TRT Special Award – 50.000 TL

Meetings on the Bridge Award - 30.000 TL

CNC Award - 8000 Euro

Melodika Sound Award

Mediterranean Film Institute (MFI) Script Workshop Award

Genius Park Visual Effects Award

Transilvania Pitch Stop Award

SE-YAP Award

Work in Progress Applications Continue

Work in Progress applications will continue until Wednesday, February 19, where international presentations of fiction feature films and documentaries will be made in the post-production stage.

The directors and producers of the films selected for the workshop will only make open presentations to distributors, festival or financiers and media representatives. The films to be selected at the end of the workshop will be awarded 30.000 TL Anadolu Efes Award, Color Up Post-production Award, Another Cinema Award, Daire Creative Visual Design Award.

Neighbours Platform

When the NEIGHBORS platform, which was launched in 2015 to encourage new international collaborations and to accelerate relations with filmmakers from neighbouring countries, develops shared stories, it also aims to create a common ground to enable filmmakers and theatre institutions work together in Turkey and its neighbours. In Neighbours platform, where the presentation of film projects from Turkey's neighbouring countries are made, a project will receive the Postbıyık Audio Post-Production Award, which includes sound post-production, and a project will also be evaluated for the 8000 Euro CNC Award, which will be given for the 9th time this year.