ANTALYA: A day after the 45th Altin Portakal (Golden Orange) Film Festival got underway, the Fourth International Eurasian Film Festival commenced here with the presentation of lifetime achivement awards to some renowned personalities of world cinema and the screening of the opening film.
Conducted by actress Azra Akin, awards were presented to renowned genius storyteller and master director Paul Verhoeven, actor Michael York and Polish composer Zbigniew Preisner.
The inaugural ceremony commenced with a concert by renowned musicians Barbaros Erköse and Ilhan Ersahin. It ended with the screening of the opening film, the Turkish-Italian co-production A Perfect Day by Ferzan Özpetek.
Speaking at the ceremony, Engin Yigitgil who is President of the TURSAK Foundation which organizes the Festival, said the festival was a passionate journey for cinema under the banner of a festival which reconciled three continents.
The Festival’s Honorary President and the Mayor of Antalya Metropolitan Municipality Menderes Türel said the festival had led to greater competition and improvement of the standard of Turkish films and also covered a large geographical area in terms of countries participating.
Paul Verhoeven who is also heading the Grand Jury at the Festival said he was working on a film set in Turkey and had already been looking for locations in Antalya and Istanbul.
The other members of the Grand Competition Jury, the NETPAC Jury, the Critics’ Award jury and the SIYAD juries were also announced. Majid Majidi, 2008 Golden Bear nominee with his latest movie The Song of Sparrows, and Cameron Bailey, co-director of Toronto International Film Festival are also members of the jury which will vote for the “Best Film” and the “Best Director” categories of the competition section.
Tuna Erdem of Turkey and Raman Chawla of India are members of the Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) jury, while the critics jury are Engin Ertan, Asli Selçuk, Burcu Aykar Sirin, and Ceylan Ozçelik.
The Grand jury will be presenting two awards: $ 75,000 for the “Best Film” and $ 25,000 for the “Best Director”.
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