Another Season of Film Festivals Begin

 

Another Season of Film Festivals

2025 Film Festival watch for Turkish Films began at 44th Istanbul Film Festival 11-22 April 2025. All have been co production or foreign products. An Iranian director helmed a film made on location in Türkiye.

When first and second tier film festivals roll around some programmers can program new Turkish films. Cannes was a pass. Venice and Toronto so far announced none. A sure thing is to follow national festivals like Adana, Antalya, and Ankara Festivals as part of their international format.

North American Turkish Film Festivals might pick new films offering a premiere screening.

Here is round up recent festivals where Turkish films were screened.

Tallinn Black Nights (November 11- 24, 2024, Estonia)

EMPIRE OF THE RABBITS / TAVŞAN İMPARATORLUĞU
Seyfettin Tokmak | TÜRKİYE, MEXICO, CROATIA

Somewhere in rural Turkey, 12-year-old Musa has recently lost his mother, and his father Beko is now insisting that the boy join other local boys in pretending to be disabled and attending a special needs school a money-making scheme designed to cheat the state of disability funding run by Beko’s criminal boss Muzaffer He also runs an illegal greyhound race, with Beko providing the rabbits for prey while he learns the tricks of playing a cripple from Muzaffer’s young daughter Nergis. As the suppression of their adult world increases, Musa rescues her into his dream of a rabbit empire founded in an old mine.

Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography awards.

IFFR – ROTTERDAM (January 30-February 9, 2025, Netherlands)

AND THE REST WILL FOLLOW / O DA BİR ŞEY Mİ
Pelin Esmer | TÜRKİYE, BULGARIA, ROMANIA

Celebrated film director Levent, the guest of honor at a Film Festival, is completely unaware of Aliye, a twenty-something housekeeper at the hotel where he is staying. But Aliye, who is trying to make a new life for herself, knows Levent and his films very well. Aliye’s intriguing story brings together these two distant people with completely different lives.

THE FLYING MEATBALL MAKER / UÇAN KÖFTECİ
Rezan Yeşilbaş  | TÜRKİYE, GERMANY, BULGARIA

Kadir, a meatball vendor, discovers that he can realize his long-standing desire to fly thanks to a paramotor, a powered parachute. From that moment on, he starts to practice hopefully and tirelessly. His extraordinary dream is considered utterly odd, provocative, and even causes him to be heavily criticized. Kadir does not give up on his dream and his passion for gliding in the sky.

Director Rezan Yeşilbaş’s feature debut had its world premiere in IFFR’s Bright Future section.

THE SHIPWRECKED TRIPTYCH
Deniz Eroğlu | GERMANY

Told through an experimental structure spanning three different time periods, the film follows the echoes of a maritime disaster across centuries. Using time and space as layered elements, it offers a philosophical meditation on how human memory is shaped—and lost.

THE THINGS YOU KILL / ÖLDÜRDÜĞÜN ŞEYLER
Alireza Khatami | TÜRKİYE, FRANCE, POLAND, CANADA

Iranian filmmaker Alireza Khatami wrote, directed, and co-produced The Things You Kill, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival.

Haunted by the suspicious death of his ailing mother, a university professor coerces his enigmatic gardener to execute a cold-blooded act of vengeance. But as his family and the authorities investigate the old man’s disappearance, Ali begins to doubt the rightness of his actions.

BERLINALE (February 13-23, 2025, Germany)

CONFIDENTE
Çağla Zencirci & Guillaume Giovanetti | TÜRKİYE, FRANCE, LUXEMBOURG

Set in Ankara in 1999, the film follows Arzu, a young woman who makes a living working at an erotic call center. As she crafts a fictional persona to comfort strangers each night, she finds herself unexpectedly drawn into a real-life mystery.

HYSTERIA
Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay | GERMANY, TÜRKİYE

 During a high-budget film production in Berlin, a scene involving the burning of the Quran sparks an immediate crisis, throwing the set into chaos. As the search for those responsible intensifies, an intern named Elif discovers the existence of a covert group with hidden motives. She soon finds herself entangled in a growing web of danger where no one is as they seem.

Istanbul Film Festival (April 11-22, 2025, Türkiye)

THE SHALLOW TALE OF A WRITER WHO DECIDED TO WRITE ABOUT A SERIAL KILLER
Tolga Karaçelik USA

Keane, a struggling writer during a divorce, befriends a bizarre man who claims to be Keane’s biggest fan and a retired serial killer. He tries to persuade a very drunk Keane to write about him and incidentally becomes his marriage counsellor when he meets Keane’s wife.

Tolga Karaçelik’s, dark comedy had its world premiere at Spotlight Narrative Section at Tribeca Film Festival.

HYSTERIA|
Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay  | GERMANY

Büyükatalay’s second feature starts with the filming of a provocative feature about the xenophobic arson attacks on German migrant residences in the 1990s. When a genuine Quran goes up in flames during the shooting, the incident infuriates everyone on set, fingers are pointed at the Turkish German director, making accusations of racism. Caught in this confrontational crossfire is production intern, Elif, who soon realizes that everybody involved has layered motivations and agendas at play.

The film had its premiere at the Panorama section of the 2025 Berlinale.

IDEA|
Tayfun Pirselimoğlu | TÜRKİYE, ROMANIA, FRANCE

Kemal works as a guard in a villa belonging to a shady businessman. One day, late at night when he is on the bus, a peculiar man gets on, sits nearby, leaves a book on his seat, and gets off. Kemal aimlessly browses through the pages of the book titled IDEA and puts it back down. His life turns into living hell after that night.

NEW DAWN FADES / YENİ ŞAFAK SOLARKEN
Gürcan Keltek TÜRKİYE, ITALY, GERMANY, NORWAY, THE NETHERLANDS

It has been years since Akın has been in and out of the hospital. He is relentless, angry, and shell-shocked from being stuck in the system. Since his most recent discharge, he is now aware that his old life is long gone. He has become unable to leave his family house except for occasional visits to religious monuments in Istanbul and falls into a state of ecstasy as he tries to take refuge in God.

New Dawn Fades had its world premiere at Locarno Film Festival.

I’M HERE, I’M FINE / BURADAYIM, İYİYİM
Emine Emel Balcı | TÜRKİYE, GERMANY

Filiz, a young, working mother, struggles with postpartum depression. Seeking moments of escape, she sets out to buy ‘a car of her own.’ Along the way, Filiz meets Şule, and her search for a car turns into an unexpected bond, offering both women a chance at solidarity.

THE THINGS YOU KILL / ÖLDÜRDÜĞÜN ŞEYLER
Alireza Khatami | TÜRKİYE, FRANCE, POLAND, CANADA

AND THE REST WILL FOLLOW / O DA BİR ŞEY Mİ
Director: Pelin Esmer TÜRKİYE, BULGARIA, ROMANIA

And the Rest Will Follow had its world premiere at Rotterdam Film Festival.

THE FLYING MEATBALL MAKER / UÇAN KÖFTECİ
Director: Rezan Yeşilbaş | TÜRKİYE, GERMANY, BULGARIA

The Flying Meatball Maker had its world premiere at Rotterdam Film Festival.