Kirmizigul Film Out of The Race for Academy Award

Nine films advance to the next round of voting in the Foreign Language Film category for the 82nd Academy Awards, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences announced on Wednesday.

Sixty-five films had originally qualified in the category, and several hundred Los Angeles-based members screened the films and chose their top choices.

The nine remaining films will be narrowed down to the five nominees by specially invited committees in New York and Los Angeles. They will spend Friday, January 29, through Sunday, January 31, viewing three films each day and then casting their ballots. The nominations will be announced on Tuesday, February 2 in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theatre.

The films, to be screened for nominees, are as follows:

Argentina, “El Secreto de Sus Ojos,” Juan Jose Campanella, director;
Australia, “Samson & Delilah,” Warwick Thornton, director;
Bulgaria, “The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner,” Stephan Komandarev, director;
France, “Un Prophète,” Jacques Audiard, director;
Germany, “The White Ribbon,” Michael Haneke, director;
Israel, “Ajami,” Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani, directors;
Kazakhstan, “Kelin,” Ermek Tursunov, director;
The Netherlands, “Winter in Wartime,” Martin Koolhoven, director;
Peru, “The Milk of Sorrow,” Claudia Llosa, director.
Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2009 will be presented on Sunday, March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center.

Trailer | Gunesi Gordum by Mahsun Kirmizigul

SYNOPSIS FROM BOYUT FILM A film dedicated to peace and children... A mountain village perched on the border between two worlds... The home, for generations, of the Altun family... But with the introduction of forced migration policies, the family finds itself wrenched from the village. This is the story of their relocation from east to west. Haydar and Isa Altun arrive with their respective families in Istanbul, where they decide to stay. But Davut Altun, his wife and children set their sights further afield and travel on to Norway... Spanning a period of 25 years, the film recounts the experiences of the three families as they struggle to find their feet in alien surroundings. It is a film that condemns all of discrimination or otherization and argues that war,fighting and contempt for anyone unlike oneself are the very problem itself... The story that unfolds in the film is a story that belongs to us all, to this country, to Turkey... Boyut Film | Tel: 0212 2704830 | Fax:0212 2703754 OFFICIAL SITE http://www.gunesigordum.com

White Angel wins two awards at 41st WorldFest

Mahsun Kirmizigul's film "Beyaz Melek" (White Angel) that represented Turkey at the 41st WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival in the U.S., where it was awarded best foreign film and the jury’s special award for the best director.

Starring actors including Yildiz Kenter, Arif Erkin, Erol Gunaydin and Gazanfer Ozcan, the film follows an old man who invites his nursing home friends to experience the kindness his village offers for the elderly.

WorldFest traces its actual beginnings to August 1961, when it began screening foreign & art films as Cinema Arts, an international film society. It became a competitive international film festival seven years later, in April 1968, and has been in continuous operation ever since. It is one of the original three film festivals in North America, with San Francisco and New York as the first two venues. Now there are over 900 USA film festivals of various levels and quality, most being non-competitive screening events! It is perhaps the longest-running film festival in the world operating under the same director.