Golden Orange Film Festival, its challenges and its future: An interview with Ahmet Boyacıoğlu and Ahmet Gürata. At the recent Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, Amir Ganjavie interviewed the festival director, Dr. Ahmet Boyacıoğlu, and the international competition coordinator, Ahmet Gürata. The highlights of those interviews are included below starting with his interview with Dr. Ahmet Boyacıoğlu.
Amir Ganjavie, UniversalCinema Magazine (UM): I know you are very busy right now. Can you start by introducing yourself?
Dr. Ahmet Boyacıoğlu (DAB): I’m the director of this festival and I’m actually in charge of Ankara Cinema Association. I’m also organizing the Festival on Wheels, which will have the 27th edition this year. I’ve been in this business now 25 years, and this will be my 47th festival, so I’m quite experienced. I’ve had the opportunity to organize Turkish film events in the framework of different film festivals all over the world, from Mexico to South Korea, a total of 25 countries. The Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival… is now celebrating the 59th edition, was always the Mecca of Turkish cinema.
(UM): I was at the opening ceremony. Something which was very interesting for me that was a…
(DAB): Have you ever seen something like that?
(UM): I didn’t understand it because I don’t know Turkish and everything was in—
(DAB): At the closing we will be having a simultaneous translation.
(UM): What I really liked, was interesting for me, was the close connection relationship between governments and the festival. I see that mayor comes, and I realized the responsible, the owner of the festival and minister of culture. I want to know more about this relationship.
(DAB): Well, the festival belongs to the municipality… The festival is financed by the municipality. It is a very important event for the municipality. And the mayor and the Minister of Culture and Tourism are also now co-financing it, but it’s only some 10% of the festival. The thing is, it’s a very important event for everyone. And the Minister of Culture and Tourism is from Antalya, so actually the main reason is that they are both from Antalya. The minister normally doesn’t go to all festivals, but as Antalya is the oldest, the biggest, and the most influential festival, he has to come.
(UM): What I like about this festival is that, for example, I can see movies like Emin Alper’s that addresses homophobia, so I’m just…
(DAB): We don’t have any censorship. The ministry is clever enough not to ban any films, because when they ban a film, it is advertisement for the film. We can practically show anything from Turkey or abroad…Three years ago, [Love, Spells, and All That] won the best actress award and also the best jury special award. We don’t have any censorship apart from violence, but this is my personal censorship. I hate it. But we just show the films. In Turkey, normally, no films are banned because it makes a positive advertisement. Emin Alper is important. The film (Burning Days) will be shown… in the cinemas. It will come to the cinemas at the end of this month. And the thing is, we are looking for Turkish premieres. And most of the directors, are coming to us because other festivals can’t show anything. But we just say, if you have shown your film at the festival in Turkey, you are not eligible.
(UM): I understand.
(DAB): There is also some monetary rewards. So the directors choose Antalya, because it is the best platform to show the film and to make a good advertisement.
(UM): How did Covid impact your festival?
(DAB): [In 2019] we had almost thousands of guests. It was a huge event. And 2020, it was closed. Many festivals canceled.
(UM): Yeah.
(DAB): Even Berlin was canceled. But we had the opportunity to build open-air cinemas. One is over there, you know.
(UM): Yeah, I was there.
(DAB): There was another huge one at the center of the park, and another here. So, in three open-air cinemas, we managed the festival with less guests. Last year, we thought COVID would go. It didn’t go. And then, six weeks before the festival, they had to, again, organize open-air cinemas, and we had more guests.
(UM): And now?
(DAB): This year is quite okay. We have to open-air cinemas and three other cinemas in the city and here. Behind the center, this cultural center belongs to the municipality. It is the only one in which the festival can be organized in the venues which belongs to the municipality. It’s a huge advantage. One holds 820 something seats, the other is 325, so we like it. We are also based here. My office is over there. And everything’s fine.
(UM): In the past you invited international filmmakers…
(DAB): We tried to invite some filmmakers. Some couldn’t manage. I think after COVID, people are reluctant to travel… but we still have some 15, 20 journalists at the forum. We had a huge Antalya Film Forum with 165 guests. We had at least 40 foreign guests from which some of them you have seen here.
(UM): And I see you have a relationship with Netflix.
(DAB): Netflix is our co-partner. We are very happy. And movie is also our co-partner. Everyone wants to be part of this festival. Turkish State Television is also a co-partner.
(UM): And how does this partnership help you, for example, for promoting films, to introducing films to distributors?
(DAB): We are also doing that. You have to check the list of our Antalya Film Forum. There are projects, works in progress, teachers, and documentaries pitching for feature-length films.
(UM): And how is the economic impact of festival on the city?
(DAB): It helps. It helps. That’s what I see. Berlin and Cannes, they earn a lot of money, for sure. Everyone that comes here, if you drink a beer or a cola, it helps. It always helps.
(UM): How much of the festival budget comes from ticket sales?
(DAB): We are selling the tickets for 3 and 5 liras. 1 euro is 18 liras…When we do it for free, people come and go, and it doesn’t mean anything. They have to pay something. It is only five liras. Five liras is nothing…But it is something, because if you don’t have a ticket, you can’t get in.
(UM): What do you think makes Antalya Festival different from the other festivals?
(DAB): …when it comes to Antalya, everyone says Antalya is important. And for sure, first screening… We want first Turkey screening here, this makes the festival more interesting, because when you come here, you know that you will see films which you have never seen anywhere in Turkey.
(UM): And the fact that by changing the mayor, the organization might change.
(DAB): This is a problem. If a new mayor would come, he would maybe appoint another director. And politically, it will be different. That’s unfortunately a problem. The thing is no one can ban the festival totally. The public will not let it. People love cinema here in the city. There are two important things. The Antalya soccer team and [the] Antalya Film Festival. They are important. They may change the festival a little bit. But the mayor before, he lost the election. And then I came here for the first time 2019, many people said he lost the election because he banned the national competition from the festival. That was a plotted boycott. Nobody came here… And then after two years, he lost the election. I don’t know if it’s totally true, but… Maybe there is some…
(UM): Consequences.
(DAB): Maybe there is something true in it.
What follows is Amir’s interview with the international competition coordinator, Ahmet Gürata.
(UM): How do you see films for selection, do you watch films through links? Do you go to other festivals? Are they sent to you by sales representative?
Ahmet Gürata (AG): We are three people who are working throughout the year…So we tend to go to major festivals like Cannes and Berlin… But most of the films, I think, we watch is through sales representative… And so, just to give you an idea, I think this year we went through over 500 titles. And I guess, probably two-thirds or maybe more were, of course, through the links.
(UM): And in terms of selection, what are the main criteria are you using for selecting films?
(AG): You’re looking for discoveries, films that are not so much exposed. Of course, we get films from other festivals, but we try to get the ones who are not sort of… Award-winning films, or are also screened elsewhere, so we are trying to find out new discoveries, new voices. Maybe that’s one criteria. We try to be diverse both in terms of geographically. We try to not just focus on European cinema but try to find out things from other parts of the world. And also, of course, in terms of gender, we’re trying to be as diverse as possible and also equal. So these are our main criteria, yeah.
(UM): All festivals right now care about diversity and inclusion. And some points you feel that it is not much different between festivals, Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, etc. They all care about diversity, and all want to say that they are caring about gender or race. So, at some point, you don’t see any difference between film festivals. Everybody’s the same. So, I’m wondering if you have any thought or reflection?
(AG): Yeah, that’s a tough one. Of course, I still believe that there’s– we’re not doing enough. My personal belief is that we’re not doing enough for diversity, because, of course, it’s not so easy. But non-European films, I guess, they’re not well-distributed. I can give you example from – not so far, but – South American films, for example, [don’t] have the chance to travel. So you have to be specific about it. You have to maybe get in touch with distributors from there or you have to… Of course, it’s very difficult to travel for festivals there. So I agree with you…they look all the same. It’s hard to find new voices because once they’re discovered, they travel to all the other festivals. But I still believe that we’re not doing enough for diversity. How many African films or Asian films [do] we see? Even I have to perhaps admit that even our program has one South American, one Asian film, and we still have more room for diversity. I would say, maybe out of 10 film, we have six, seven European co-productions, at least. So, I think we can do even more for this. Yeah.
(UM): You mentioned you are helping the international program, but I see that there are two sorts of international films. The one that features films that already premiered (Another World) and the ones which are mostly new (the competition). Are you programming both?
(AG): Yeah, we do both, yeah. That program is called Another World. It used to be called World Cinema but we gave it a new name, Another World. Yes, that’s mostly films that are awarded. There are some also discoveries of lesser-known films in that program as well. In the end, our pool is the same. We sort of select from the same pool of these two [selections]. Some of these films are already exposed in many world festivals, are very well-known, so they’re not maybe so much suitable for the competition, because competition is mostly for new discoveries and new voices. But also sometimes we have new voices in the Another World program as well. Because of this diversity, for example, if you have, say, three, four films, from Cannes, we cannot put all of them all into the competition. So we say maybe one film from Cannes but then the others can go to the other program. Or if they say we have three French films, we cannot have all of them in the competition. Just one film for the competition and the others can be in the non-competition parts. So, the non-competition [section] is a bit more flexible, easy. But again, these are the films we believe the audience would like. Let’s put it this way. It’s kind of a nice mix between award-winning sort of films with also a few discoveries.
(UM): And how do you treat, for example, films like the film of Emin Alper (Burning Days)? It was a kind of multinational production. Yes, its language is Turkey, it’s shot here, but there are producers from other countries.
(AG): Exactly, exactly. Yeah, that’s something we discussing every year, whether to include some Turkish films in the international competition. We haven’t tried it yet, but every year we discuss this. I think the problem or the, let’s say, obstacle is that if you select, let’s say, one Turkish film for the international competition, then we thought that other people in the national competition might protest or feel a bit resentful about it. Why is that film, not my film, isn’t in the international competition? That kind of feeling. But I think, at some point, we have to seriously consider what makes a film suitable for national? It’s kind of defined in the regulations… Yeah, it’s a big discussion about what makes a film belong to a particular nation. But I guess we’ll need to perhaps include some Turkish titles as well in the international competition in upcoming years.
(UM): Just for curiosity, because I see that, for example, mayor is coming at the opening of festivals, so I think it’s a very good connection between politics and festival. I’m just curious to know if that impacts your decisions about picking of the films. Are there regulations that you need to, for example, respect? Two what degree, for example, can you be free in choosing the controversial? Alper movies are really interesting because we usually think that these kinds of movies cannot be screened, but you see them here.
(AG): Honest answer, yeah, we’re trying to be brave… as free as possible…I should admit that I think we have this kind of– because you know that films are banned in Turkey and filmmakers are put into jail, so you have to be extra careful. But we are trying to be… We are conscious of this, so we are trying to remind ourselves, let’s not sort of… Because the worst thing is, I think, the self-censorship. Then, you say, “Well, maybe if I put this film on the program, that would be trouble,” so we’re constantly reminding ourselves, “No, no, no. If you believe this is a good film, if this is what all these ones to see, let’s go on.” And festivals have this kind of relative freedom, because the films don’t go to the censorship board. Normally, all the films that are screened in movie theaters go to a board of classification, the Minister of Culture. Festival films have this kind of privilege that they don’t go to this board of classification, so we are kind of free in that sense. But then again, thinking of the overall political climate, yeah, you’re always reminded of that.