10 award-winning films for the 10th anniversary of the Vancouver Turkish Film Festival

The festival's opening film will be the award-winning "Black Night," and the guest of honor will be Eylem Kaftan, the director of the movie "A Day, 365 Hours.

The Turkish Canadian Society is proud to announce the 10th Annual Turkish Film Festival, co-presented with SFU Woodward's Cultural Programs from November 24 to 26 at the SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts. The festival will provide a window into contemporary Turkish cinema and culture as in the past, with a lineup of 8 feature films and 2 documentaries.

Following the opening gala reception on the night of November 24, the festival will officially open with the well-known screenwriter-director Özcan Alper's "Black Night," a drama about a man returning to his hometown after 8 years of self-inflicted exile, which won the Best Film and Best Screenplay awards at the 59th Antalya Film Festival, Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor awards at the 10th Bosphorus Film Festival, Best Director, Special Jury Award, and SIYAD Best Film Award at the 33rd Ankara Film Festival. Recently, it won the "Best Film" award at the Montpellier Film Festival in France.

Festival Director Eylem Sönmez said, "We are proud to be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Vancouver Turkish Film Festival, which is organized by a volunteer team under the umbrella of the Turkish Canadian Society. For the last 10 years, we have presented the most distinguished and award-winning films of Turkish cinema in Vancouver. This year, we are pleased to present the films of female directors such as Eylem Kaftan, Melisa Önel, Somnur Vardar, Ümran Safter, Ayşe Polat, and movies that tell women's stories such as "A Day, 365 Hours," "Suddenly," "Guilt," "Glass Curtain," in a world where still few movies portray strong female figures and even fewer have women at the helm as director, producer, or writer. "

Following the Sarajevo Film Festival, the film "A Day, 365 Hours", which had its Turkish premiere at the 30th International Adana Golden Boll Film Festival, tells the story of three women crossing paths after the abuses they suffered under the shadow of crime, hatred and the search for justice. After the movie screening, Assistant Director Nural Sümbültepe will have a Q&A session with director Eylem Kaftan.

One of the most exciting productions of this year's festival is Selman Nacar's latest movie "Hesitation Line" which had its world premiere at the 80th Venice Film Festival and was deemed worthy of the Best Film award from the main competition section of the Zurich Film Festival. The film is about the story of a lawyer who has to confront herself while defending a murder suspect.

On February 6, 2023, a massive earthquake hit Antioch, known as the "City of Civilizations." The documentary "Lost in the Dark" bears witness to the feelings, losses, and hopes of the people of Antioch. It invites the audience to understand the earthquake's devastating effects, learn from it, remember it, and take precautions in the future.

Other festival highlights include "Drifting," which won the Best Documentary Award at the 2023 Istanbul Film Festival, "In the Blind Spot," which had its world premiere at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival, and "Almost Entirely a Slight Disaster," which won the Best Film, Best Director, and Screenplay Awards at the 30th International Adana Golden Boll Film Festival.

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