Naz Önen, a student in the Media and Design graduate program, was a winner in the “Pitching” competition at the KısaKes Short Film Festival held in İstanbul on September 27-30. Naz is the producer of the proposed “Yapıbozum” (Deconstruction) film project, a documentary about an Iranian artist living in Ankara, to be directed by Doğu Gündoğdu.
KısaKes is an international event, comprising a short film festival with screenings of films from around the world, as well as a competition for young filmmakers during which finalists “pitch” their film ideas to a jury.
This year’s competition was based on the theme “Migration.” The jury chose 6 winning projects from among the 12 finalists, with the winners announced at the festival’s closing ceremony. As head of the competition jury, Zeynep Atakan—the producer of Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “Winter Sleep” and the founder of Zeyno Film and YapımLab—was there to present the awards.
Over a one-year period, the competition winners will receive support from YapımLab, KiralıkKameracım and the Istanbul Postproduction Department, allowing them to complete their productions. Each film will then have its world premiere at the 2017 KısaKes Festival, before going on to screenings at 22 Turkish and 10 international film festivals. It is hoped that through the universal language of cinema, these films will raise awareness on the national and international stage concerning the many-faceted phenomenon of migration.
For further information, see http://www.kisakes.org/.