Low budget, high quality at Golden Orange Film Fest
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Anatolia News Agency
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Temmuz 02, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - The Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival will be held from Oct. 10 to 17. The officials criticize the festival’s high budget in previous years, saying this year there will be some changes to the festival and it will have a smaller budget but no concessions in quality
The Golden Orange Film Festival, one of Turkey’s most prestigious and long-running festivals, will be held this year from Oct. 10 to 17 in the Mediterranean city of Antalya.
The 46th edition of the festival, jointly organized by Antalya Metropolitan Municipality and the Antalya Foundation for Culture and Arts, or AKSAV, was launched at a press conference Tuesday in Istanbul with the participation of Antalya Mayor and AKSAV President Mustafa Akaydın, municipality and foundation officials and artist Ali Kocatape. Providing information about the vision, general framework, changes and events in this year’s festival, Akaydın said the festival was given a thematic feature and music would be main theme of the festival this year.
Akaydın said they would bring the world’s film music together with national and international competitions and film screenings. "Golden Orange is one of Turkey’s oldest and most prestigious festivals. Festivals become more meaningful when they meet the audiences. We want to organize a festival that will bring together the Turkish art of cinema with the world."
Budget for the festival
Akaydın said the budget of previous Golden Orange Film Festivals were too high, and that last year’s budget was 21 million Turkish liras, adding that the municipality still receives invoices of last year’s spending. He said in last year’s festival, 4.1 million liras was spent for accommodation, 3 million liras for inner city transportation, 2 million liras for upstate transportation, 1.3 million liras for The Turkish Cinema and Audiovisual Culture Foundation, or TÜRSAK’s, consultancy, and 1.27 million liras for human resources.
Akaydın replied to criticism that the festival’s quality would reduce this year due to a lower budget, saying: "It is told that we will lower the flag of the festival. On the contrary, we are trying to lift the flag that is already lowered. Some 1 million liras were paid for the logo designed for last year’s festival but later on the municipality faced a lawsuit on the grounds that the logo was a copy. The municipality will pay a high amount of money if it was really copied from any other thing.
The money that was spent for the logo went for nothing. $800,000 was spent for dressing the Antalya Culture Center during the festival. We plan to separate a budget of 9 million liras for this year’s festival, which is one-third of the previous one. Last year 7.7 million liras of state assistance was sent for the festival. This year this amount is 2.5 million liras, sent by the Culture and Tourism Ministry, but 800,000 liras out of it was spent for last year. The biggest supporters of the festival are the Prime Ministry Promotion Fund and the Culture and Tourism Ministry. I believe that they will do their best for this year’s festival again."
Vecdi Sayar, who was appointed the AKSAV art director, said the competition titled the "Eurasia International Film Festival" would continue with long feature films but the name Eurasia was removed due to the varieties of participation. Sayar said national and international competitions and all the events were gathered under the same title, the "International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival," adding that there would be mass screenings under the title "Eurasia." He said there would not be short film and documentary competitions in the festival, and that the favorite cinema productions would be presented to the people of Antalya and all cinema lovers. Sayar said the world’s film stars were brought to Antalya in previous years in return for large amounts of money but they were not brought together with people and only stayed in their hotels. "This year, we expect that renowned names of Turkish and world cinema will attend the festival voluntarily, and meet the public," said Sayar.
Sayar said there were some changes in the festival regulations, and some awards, including the best hair and make up award were removed. He said for the first time this year, the best first film award would be given to encourage young filmmakers.
He said the best film award winner would be rewarded with 300,000 liras this year, and the awards for the best director of cinematography and the best screenplay were increased to 50,000 liras from 30,000 liras. He said the total amount of money for awards would be 600,000 liras. Applications for the competitions would continue through Sept. 15, Sayar said, adding that the Eurasia Film Market, for which high amounts of money is spent for three years, was lifted this year due to the reason that it failed to reach its goal to market Turkish cinema to the world.
Antalya Metropolitan Mayor consultant Göksel Kumsal said as a result of meetings with the people of Antalya and cinema sector officials, the Golden Orange statue was abandoned and instead, a Venus Goddess statue, which was used until five years ago, would be used again in the festival. Kumsal said due to the 46th year of the festival, huge screens would be erected at 46 points across the city, and that artists would participate in cinema meetings in neighborhoods. He said a Turkish Cinema Information Center Web site was established. Also, artist Ali Kocatepe has rearranged his song "Antalya’ya Koş" (Run to Antalya) and reinterpreted it in English, Russian and German. His CDs will be distributed to tourists during the festival.
The 46th edition of the festival, jointly organized by Antalya Metropolitan Municipality and the Antalya Foundation for Culture and Arts, or AKSAV, was launched at a press conference Tuesday in Istanbul with the participation of Antalya Mayor and AKSAV President Mustafa Akaydın, municipality and foundation officials and artist Ali Kocatape. Providing information about the vision, general framework, changes and events in this year’s festival, Akaydın said the festival was given a thematic feature and music would be main theme of the festival this year.
Akaydın said they would bring the world’s film music together with national and international competitions and film screenings. "Golden Orange is one of Turkey’s oldest and most prestigious festivals. Festivals become more meaningful when they meet the audiences. We want to organize a festival that will bring together the Turkish art of cinema with the world."
Budget for the festival
Akaydın said the budget of previous Golden Orange Film Festivals were too high, and that last year’s budget was 21 million Turkish liras, adding that the municipality still receives invoices of last year’s spending. He said in last year’s festival, 4.1 million liras was spent for accommodation, 3 million liras for inner city transportation, 2 million liras for upstate transportation, 1.3 million liras for The Turkish Cinema and Audiovisual Culture Foundation, or TÜRSAK’s, consultancy, and 1.27 million liras for human resources.
Akaydın replied to criticism that the festival’s quality would reduce this year due to a lower budget, saying: "It is told that we will lower the flag of the festival. On the contrary, we are trying to lift the flag that is already lowered. Some 1 million liras were paid for the logo designed for last year’s festival but later on the municipality faced a lawsuit on the grounds that the logo was a copy. The municipality will pay a high amount of money if it was really copied from any other thing.
The money that was spent for the logo went for nothing. $800,000 was spent for dressing the Antalya Culture Center during the festival. We plan to separate a budget of 9 million liras for this year’s festival, which is one-third of the previous one. Last year 7.7 million liras of state assistance was sent for the festival. This year this amount is 2.5 million liras, sent by the Culture and Tourism Ministry, but 800,000 liras out of it was spent for last year. The biggest supporters of the festival are the Prime Ministry Promotion Fund and the Culture and Tourism Ministry. I believe that they will do their best for this year’s festival again."
Vecdi Sayar, who was appointed the AKSAV art director, said the competition titled the "Eurasia International Film Festival" would continue with long feature films but the name Eurasia was removed due to the varieties of participation. Sayar said national and international competitions and all the events were gathered under the same title, the "International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival," adding that there would be mass screenings under the title "Eurasia." He said there would not be short film and documentary competitions in the festival, and that the favorite cinema productions would be presented to the people of Antalya and all cinema lovers. Sayar said the world’s film stars were brought to Antalya in previous years in return for large amounts of money but they were not brought together with people and only stayed in their hotels. "This year, we expect that renowned names of Turkish and world cinema will attend the festival voluntarily, and meet the public," said Sayar.
Sayar said there were some changes in the festival regulations, and some awards, including the best hair and make up award were removed. He said for the first time this year, the best first film award would be given to encourage young filmmakers.
He said the best film award winner would be rewarded with 300,000 liras this year, and the awards for the best director of cinematography and the best screenplay were increased to 50,000 liras from 30,000 liras. He said the total amount of money for awards would be 600,000 liras. Applications for the competitions would continue through Sept. 15, Sayar said, adding that the Eurasia Film Market, for which high amounts of money is spent for three years, was lifted this year due to the reason that it failed to reach its goal to market Turkish cinema to the world.
Antalya Metropolitan Mayor consultant Göksel Kumsal said as a result of meetings with the people of Antalya and cinema sector officials, the Golden Orange statue was abandoned and instead, a Venus Goddess statue, which was used until five years ago, would be used again in the festival. Kumsal said due to the 46th year of the festival, huge screens would be erected at 46 points across the city, and that artists would participate in cinema meetings in neighborhoods. He said a Turkish Cinema Information Center Web site was established. Also, artist Ali Kocatepe has rearranged his song "Antalya’ya Koş" (Run to Antalya) and reinterpreted it in English, Russian and German. His CDs will be distributed to tourists during the festival.