It’s no secret that despite making up almost 50% percent of the population, women aren’t 50% percent of filmmakers. Over the years, some festivals have sought to address this disparity with targeted initiatives. While Antalya doesn’t have a mandate of inclusion that I was able to find, there are several films directed or co-directed by women in the festival, with the most represented in the Another World platform. Over half of the films in that category have a woman at the helm. It’s also worth noting that in Special Screenings, both National Features (Ümran Safter’s Guilt and Çiğdem Sezgin’s Suna) and half the National Documentaries (Biket İlhan’s Memoirs of a Physician and Jale İncekol’s “Narperi’s Bracelet”), were helmed by women.
Aftersun, from first-time feature writer/director Charlotte Wells, is a perfect fit for the Antalya festival. It’s in Antalya’s Another World category, and despite being USA/United Kingdom co-production, much of the central story action takes place in a Turkish resort. The film is about memory. A woman (Sophie) recalls a specific vacation with her father when she was 11. It stars Normal People’s Paul Mescal as the father (Callum) and newcomer Frankie Corio as 11-year-old Sophie. This film premiered at Cannes and also had showings at Telluride and TIFF before arriving at Antalya. It’s the kind of writer/directorial debut that should mean we’ll be hearing more about future projects from Charlotte wells in the future.
Another debut feature, this time in the National Feature Film Competition category, comes from Selcen Ergun with Snow and the Bear. Co-written with Yeşim Aslan, the film is an anti-fairy tale survival suspense feature. It follows a nurse assigned to a remote Turkish town. When a man goes missing, the dynamics in the town constantly shift as suspicions weigh. Not to mention the fear of bears coming into town.
With most film festivals, the short film category is where they fulfill most of their mandate or drive for the inclusion of women directors. So, I found it interesting that, percentage-wise, in the competitive festival and the Special Presentations, the National Short Film Competition was the category where women directors were the least represented. Yağmur Mısırlıoğlu’s Not Today is one of three short films in the category with a women director. It follows a young 30-something who works as a babysitter, while also having to take care of her own kids and her mother with Alzheimer’s on the day she tries to change her life, only it’s not a good day to do this. This short sounds like many a millennial nightmare.
Finally and fittingly, in the National Documentary Film Competition category, Pınar Fontini’s entry What’s the Name of the Movie?, looks at the films and conditions surrounding the first films for women directors in Turkey in the 1990s. Using a mix of new interviews and found footage Fontini and her co-writer Nalan Abbasoğlu aim to create a historical reflective piece that serves both to celebrate, recontextualize, and highlight the achievements of women filmmakers in the context of the historical background of the country.
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