A highly diversified selection of 115 films from 42 countries will be shown in next month's !f İstanbul International Independent Film Festival, whose full program was announced at a Friday night gathering at The Hall club in Beyoğlu.
!f 2015 will open its İstanbul stint on Feb. 12 with “Big Eyes,” Tim Burton's newest offering that hit US theaters on Christmas Day.
Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz are in the leading roles in the biopic that follows the story of American painter Margaret Keane (Adams), who became famous in the 1950s and '60s for her signature style in which she depicts women, children and animals with extremely big eyes. The film's !f outing will mark its Turkish debut.
Including “Big Eyes,” there are 22 recent films from the world festival and indie film circuits in this year's Digiturk Galas section, usually the festival's most hotly anticipated section whose tickets sell out days before the festival begins.
All-star favorites
Previously announced titles in the Galas section -- the Michael Keaton-starrer “Birdman,” the newest animated feature by Isao Takahata “The Tale of the Princess Kaguya,” the Joshua Oppenheimer documentary “The Look of Silence,” the comic documentary “The Yes Men Are Revolting” and Iran's first vampire flick “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night” -- will be joined by 16 other features that have made remarkable impact at international festivals such as Sundance, Toronto and Berlin, but have yet to hit the big screen in Turkish cinemas.
Among them are “Dear White People,” a satirical film about four black students at an Ivy League college; “Rosewater,” Jon Stewart's debut directorial effort starring Gael Garcia Bernal as Iranian journalist Maziar Bahari, which also features Turkish actor Haluk Bilginer among its cast; “The Last Five Years,” a big-screen adaptation of the American stage musical of the same name, starring Anna Kendrick; and Australian director Tony Ayres's noir drama “Cut Snake.”
Also in the mix are the Canadian mystery-drama “The Forbidden Room,” which brings together a star-studded cast that includes Roy Dupuis, Geraldine Chaplin, Udo Kier, Charlotte Rampling and Mathieu Amalric; and “Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter,” based on an urban legend surrounding an office worker from Tokyo who was rumored to have died trying to find the treasure depicted in the Coen brothers film “Fargo.”
“Çekmeceler” (Drawers), a controversial coming of age story from the Turkish co-directors of the 2011 drama “Zenne Dancer,” M. Caner Alper and Mehmet Binay, will have its world premiere as part of Digiturk Galas.
Competitions, new sections, regulars
There are nine films in the festival's international feature film competition “!f Inspired,” whose entrants were announced last week. The festival's second international competition, “Love & Change,” announced on Jan. 15, features eight new features by “directors who have succeeded in changing the world with their cameras.”
The Tribeca Film Festival award-winning documentary “Regarding Susan Sontag”; “To Be Takei,” about the Star Trek icon George Takei; and “Life Itself,” a documentary about the late Roger Ebert, arguably the world's most famous film critic, will all have their Turkish premieres as part of the seven-film “Art & Life” selection.
A new section introduced this year to the festival is called “Saints, Poets and Fools.” It features short films, concert documentaries and feature films by and about cultural icons, including William S. Burroughs, Pina Bausch, Patti Smith, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and The Doors, among others.
A restored copy of “The Color of Pomegranates,” a highly experimental 1968 film about Armenian troubadour Sayat Nova, will be shown at the “!f Cult” section.
Other regular festival sections this year include “Dark & Edgy,” a five-piece midnight-madness selection of disturbing thrillers; “Special Screenings,” which this year focuses on a new trend in cinema, hybrid, via two films; “Rainbow,” which focuses on LGBT rights; “Home,” which brings together 10 films about or set in Turkey; and “!f Shorts from Turkey,” the festival's annual national short film selection, whose screenings are held free of charge.
Sidebar events such as talks, workshops and the like will take place at the art spaces SALT Galata and SALT Beyoğlu.
This year marks the 14th edition of the indie film fest, which was born in İstanbul and which later expanded to other Turkish cities, mainly to Ankara and İzmir, which will be hosting a selection from the main program from Feb. 26 through March 1.
The İstanbul leg is scheduled for Feb. 12-22 and will hold its screenings in three theaters -- the Cinemaximum Fitaş in Beyoğlu, the Cinemaximum Kanyon in Levent and the Cinemaximum Budak, inside the Caddebostan Cultural Center in Kadıköy, on the city's Asian side.
Ankara will host the festival at the Cinemaximum Armada multiplex and İzmir film buffs can watch the films at Cinemaximum Konak Pier.
Discounted presale tickets will be available starting Jan. 30 via Biletix. For further information and the screening schedule, see www.ifistanbul.com.
“To Be Takei”
“Dear White People”