THE 44th ISTANBUL FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES OFFICIAL SELECTIONS AND AWARDS

11-22 April 2025

Organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), the Istanbul Film Festival is set to return from 11 to 22 April 2025. The festival, sponsored by N Kolay, once again brings together pioneering filmmakers whose stories and styles are redefining today's cinema.

Marking its 44th year, the Istanbul Film Festival is a remarkable celebration of cinema, showcasing a wide array of films that connect lives, cultures, and continents in the vibrant atmosphere of Istanbul. The festival's programme includes feature films, documentaries, and short films, along with special screenings, retrospectives, and sessions with renowned film professionals.

The festival will screen 139 films in 13 sections over 12 days. In addition to the screenings, the festival will also feature talks, special screenings and events with the participation of guest directors and actors.

44th Istanbul Film Festival Cinema Honorary Awards

The prestigious Cinema Honorary Award, given by the festival to those who have made significant contributions to cinema, will be presented to the talented actress Zuhal Olcay at the festival's opening ceremony on 11 April, Friday.

This year, the festival will present the Outstanding Contribution to Cinema Award to Gülin Üstün, who took on the role of director of the festival’s co-production platform, Meetings on the Bridge, between 2010 and 2023.

Festival films will be screened in six film theatres

The festival will screen films at a selection of prestigious cinemas across the city such as the historic Atlas 1948, just down the street Beyoğlu Sineması or CineWAM Premium City's Nişantaşı at the city’s European side. Across the Bosphorus, Kadıköy Cinema, Sinematek / Sinemaevi and Paribu Cineverse Nautilus will feature screenings in Kadıköy on the Asian side. Lastly, the Pera Museum Auditorium will host special press and industry screenings, providing an exclusive setting for film professionals to engage with the festival.

Köln 75 to open the festival after its premiere at the Berlin Film Festival

The 44th Istanbul Film Festival opens this year with Köln 75, which premiered at a special gala at the Berlin Film Festival this year. Telling the moving true story of Keith Jarrett's 1975 live album The Köln Concert, the film marks the 50th anniversary of the concert. The Köln Concert is the best-selling solo album and the best-selling piano album in jazz history, and the film was made possible by the extraordinary efforts of a 17-year-old high school student. 

What’s on the festival?

The 44th Istanbul Film Festival programme has 13 different sections. The traditional Young Masters section features promising talents as Mined Zone brings the rebellious and restless spirits of cinema together. Around the World includes mostly award-winning films from all over the globe and Cinemania features masters of the cinema.

Galas, one of the most beloved sections of the Istanbul Film Festival, will be featured this year with support by

They Shot The Piano Player

Reposted by Robin Menken

Bossa Nova is making a comeback-filmically.First there was Roberto de Oliveira’s “Elis and Tom”, a documentary from remastered footage of a legendary recording session in LA in 1974: then Dandara Ferreira & Lô Politi bio pic about Gal Costa "Meu Nome e Gal"- a look at Gal Costa's career as part of Tropicalia's political resistance to the violence of Brazil's new dictatorship; and now Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal's Animated docu-mystery “They Shot the Piano Player”.

This rich musical mosaic cum thriller is sheer catnip for cool cat and kitty jazz lovers.

Jeff Goldblum voices the main character Jeff Harris, whose fascination with an obscure Bossa Nova pianist, who went missing while on tour in Argentina with Vinicius de Moraes, takes over his book on Bossa Nova.

Moraes- Brazilian poet, diplomat (he served as Brazilian Vice-Consul in LA in the 40's) lyricist, musician, singer, and playwright co-wrote Black Orpheus, the play and film. Moraes is one of many luminaries of Brazilian music from Bossa Nova Jazz through Troplicalia and MPB, who appear in the film.

Goldblum's Jeff Harris is essentially Fernando Trueba's alter ego. A noted Jazz pianist, Goldblum brings a sensitive swinging style to his narration.

Discovering an out of print jazz record called O LP, on which Tenorio played, Trueba, like Harris in the film, became fascinated with Francisco Tenorio Jr., the actual Brazilian pianist who tragically went missing in 1976. A musician's musician, Tenorio recorded one record as a band leader in March 1964,  when he was 23 years old- "Embalo".(It's available as a Mr. Bongo re-issued CD). There is a gorgeous sequence of the "Embalo" recording session in the film.

Trueba conducted years of interviews with musicians and friends of Francisco Tenorio Jr. In South America and the U.S. without a specific project in mind. That archive of fascinating interviews became the basis of "They Shot The Piano Player."

Javier Mariscal, one of Trueba's co-directors on their previous animated feature "Chico & Rita", brought a looser more caricatural style to this project. The bright palette and more abstracted character design is reminiscent of jazz-tinged modernist animation classics from UPA's Postwar "Atomic Era" Studio style which influenced animation at Warners, Disney et al.

Trueba and Mariscal adopted UPA's limited animation style, inviting their adult audience to fill in the blanks. The fictional framing story of Jeff Harris is handled in a more detailed realistic animation style. The flashbacks described by a host of famous musicians and family friends are expressionistic, adopting UPA's bright color blocks to create jazzy emotional sequences.

Apolitical Tenorio was 'disappeared' by the Argentine government, suspected of being a Communist because he had long hair and a musician's union card, tortured and shot in the head in the notorious Navy School of Mechanics (ESMA), in Buenos Aires.

The film also exposes the CIA-approved Operation Condor, where Military dictatorships across South America cooperated in disappearing other countries' suspected exiled leftists.

Among many other figures, Ella Fitzgerald and interviewees Stan Getz, Bud Shank, Joáo Gilberto, Paulo Moura, João Donato, Tom Jobim, Caetano Veloso, Milton Nascimento, Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Toquinho and Vinicius de Moráes appear in the film. Seductive bossa nova tunes pepper the soundtrack.

Havana-based fictional romance “Chico and Rita” was an homage to latin jazz by Trueba, a hard core music buff and sometime producer. It featured appearances by Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk and Cuban master conga player Chano Pozo.
Sony Classics is distributing the entrancing "They Shot T

BERGAMO FILM MEETING International Film Festival 43rd edition, March 8 - 16, 2025

43rd EDITION – THE WINNERS

Gina - Ulrike Kofler

Gina by Ulrike Kofler (Austria, 2024) is the winner of the main competition Mostra Concorso of the 43nd edition of Bergamo Film Meeting. Chosen by the audience, the film will receive the Bergamo Film Meeting Prize, worth 5,000 €. The international jury, composed of Dániel Hevér (director), Andrea Inzerillo (artistic director Sicilia Queer filmfest) e Tiina Lokk (artistic director Black Nights Film Festival di Tallinn) decided to award the Best Direction Prize, worth 2,000 € to Hiver à Sokcho/Winter in Sokcho by Koya Kamura (France, South Korea, 2024).
 

The audience has also awarded the Close Up section CGIL Prize (2,000 €) to the documentary Mutterland by Miriam Pucitta (Switzerland, Germany, 2023). The Prize - La Sortie de l’Usine of the CGIL jury, decided by the union delegates of CGIL Bergamo (1,000 €), goes to Dear Beautiful Beloved by Juri Rechinsky (Austria, 2024); and a special mention goes to Personale by Carmen Trocker (Italy, Austria, 2024).
 

The 44th edition of Bergamo Film Meeting will take place from March 7 to 15, 2026.

EXHIBITION COMPETITION

FIRST PRIZE BERGAMO FILM MEETING

Gina by Ulrike Kofler, Austria, 2024, 97’, col. 

At just nine years old, Gina has to care for her two younger siblings and a mother who is too young, single, alcoholic, and expecting her fourth child. She longs for a stable family, a father figure, and a loving grandmother. Instead, she is forced to confront poverty, the abandonment of her mother’s latest lover, and the pressure of social services. However, Gina refuses to accept a fate of failures, which threatens to pass inexorably from mother to daughter.

SECOND PRIZE BERGAMO FILM MEETING

Oro Amargo/Bitter Gold by Juan Olea, Germany, Uruguay, Chile, 2024, 86’, col.

Carola (16) lives in the Atacama Desert with her father, Pacífico. They eke out a living from an artisanal cobra mine, while secretly working a gold vein by night. When one of the miners discovers them, a scuffle ensues and Pacífico kills him, though he is left

“Directed by Michael Lippert, “Sloane: A Jazz Singer” is set to premiere at the Santa Fe Film Festival this month. One of its executive producers is Stephen Barefoot, once a bartender at the Frog and Nightgown (and the owner of the ill-fated club in Chapel Hill), who talked her into the project. “There is no such thing […]

BIFFes 16, 2025: The opening, closing, and the team behind the festival

Besides showing films, major film festivals have a grand inaugural ceremony and an equally grand closing ceremony. The venue for the BIFFes 16 inauguration was the lawmakers’ abode, the Vidhan Soudha (Legislative Assembly) ramparts. Invited guests were taken there in big, comfortable cars or coaches. On such occasions, the 5-10 leading personalities that made the festival possible are invited (they invite themselves, to be sure, because they are the hosts themselves) and deliver speeches. On the inaugural day, which was the 1st of March in this case, the speeches tend to be longer, often up to thirty minutes.

Since Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes) is a state government-run affair, since its fourth edition, on the make-shift dais were the political bigwigs and BIFFes related who’s who of the state: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, D.K. Shivakumar, Deputy Chief Minister, President of the Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy, Dr. Sadhu Kokila, an actor-singer, who has acted in over 900 films, Kishore Kumar (the late great singer’s namesake), a tall, bald imposing figure, the festival’s brand ambassador, and some 4-5 other political figures. Topics covered were: the history of the festival, significance of cinema in general, and, in Karnataka, in particular, thanks to the organisers (each other) conveyed multiple times by each speaker. Absentees were also thanked for their contributions. An announcement was made by the Chief Minister that Karnataka will set-up its own Film City very soon.

Either before the ceremony or during, a pageant of dance and/or music entertains the audience. At Bengaluru, there was music and singing courtesy two virtuosos, L. Subramaniam, the internationally acclaimed violin player, and playback singer Kavitha Krishnamurthy. Though I have never met Subramaniam, Kavitha and I go back a long way, when she was a student at St. Xavier’s College, and known by her both name Sharda. It was changed to avoid confusion with Sharda, the other playback singer, who was promoted by music director Shankar of Shankar-Jaikishan fame. While Subramaniam wielded the violin like a toy, and even played some of the numbers he had recorded with the late French jazz violin maestro Stephane Grappelli, who passed away in 1997 (I possess and cherish that LP record), Kavitha wowed the audience with the extended version of ‘Limbuda’, from the Hindustani hit film Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. Subramaniam’s grand-daughter joined him in some numbers, playing…what else? the violin.

Almost all speakers spoke in Kannada, the state language of Karnataka, of which Bengaluru is the capital. Only Vidyashankar Jois, the ever-smiling Artistic Director of the festival, interspersed his address with some English. Nobody spike in Hindi. That was only to be expected, because one does not find any signage in Hindi, the national state language, anywhere in the city. There were a few stars present, but all of them were from the southern states and not known to this writer. Mumbai film industry was conspicuous by its absence. No less than the Legislative Assembly grounds were chosen to hold the event, which, if I recall correctly, has been the venue for most, if not all, BIFFes inaugurals. After a time-span of some three hours, the inaugural film, Pyre, was screened, on a makeshift screen. Invitees to the inaugural dinner did not wait to watch it, for that would mean missing out on the dinner, which, besides being an occasion to savour five-star food, also presented an opportunity to network with delegates, both, from India, and abroad. There were quite a few fo

Led by Multi-GRAMMY® Award-Winning Engineer, Mixer, Producer, and Musician Rafa Sardina

Abbey Road Institute, a leading international professional music production school, is proud to announce the opening of its newest campus in the heart of the global music industry, Los Angeles, California. Set to open in 2025, the new campus will be launched by 19-time GRAMMY® and LATIN GRAMMY® winner Rafa Sardina, and its location will be announced shortly.

Sardina, whose extensive list of award-winning collaborations includes work with Stevie Wonder, Rosalia, Elvis Costello, Alejandro Sanz, Dr. Dre, Camila Cabello, Placido Domingo, D’Angelo, and Lady Gaga, has designed the new campus and studio complex to provide Abbey Road Institute students with a professional experience unique to Los Angeles. The Los Angeles campus will feature Abbey Road Institute's renowned curriculum, along with a distinguished faculty comprising top LA-based producers, engineers, and musicians, including Alan Meyerson, Barry Rudolph, John Boylan, Vanessa Garde, and many more.

Abbey Road Institute offers an intensive, immersive education for aspiring music producers and engineers in a small, focused learning environment. The program emphasizes hands-on, apprenticeship-style training to equip graduates with the skills necessary to thrive in the fast-paced music industry and forge their own career paths. Graduating students will earn a Diploma in Music Production and Sound Engineering, as well as additional diplomas in Audio Post Production for Film and TV & Music Business set to be launched in the future.

When asked about the new campus and its programs, Sardina shared: “Abbey Road Institute Los Angeles is the culmination of a long-held dream. I want to share the invaluable professional experiences of my closest musical colleagues and myself with outstanding new generations of mixers, producers, and other music and music business professionals. I can’t wait to welcome our first students and witness the beginning of their exciting career journeys.”

Abbey Road Institute London-based CEO, Luca Barassi, echoed this enthusiasm about the opening of the Los Angeles campus, stating: “We are thrilled to be working with Rafa and his team as we continue expanding our educational footprint in the U.S. Rafa has a strong affinity with how we teach, and an ambition to pass on his expertise to the next generation. Establishing our second U.S. campus in Los Angeles —a creative, dynamic, and globally influential city— will provide students with an immersive experience at the heart of a thriving international music scene.”

As a member of the Abbey Road Institute board, Universal Music Group’s Chief Operating Officer, David Sharpe, emphasizes the impact of the Institute’s graduates: “We are incredibly proud of the success of Abbey Road Institute graduates. Some of them have earned multiple GRAMMY® and Billboard awards, along with numerous GRAMMY® and LATIN GRAMMY® nominations. Bringing Abbey Road Institute’s world-class education to Los Angeles will provide aspiring producers and engineers with the training they need to make a strong entrance into the music industry.”

For more information about Abbey Road Institute Los Angeles, please contact the campus at losangeles@abbeyroadinstitute.com or visit www.abbeyroadinstitute.com/losangeles.

ABOUT ABBEY ROAD INSTITUTE

Abbey Road Institute is a specialist music production school offering a carefully crafted and unparalleled learning experience in a

Composer Will Bates has composed original scores for a myriad of filmmakers including acclaimed directors Mike Cahill (Another Earth; I Origins; Bliss), Alex Gibney (We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks; Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief; Zero Days; The Forever Prisoner), Ry Russo-Young (You Won’t Miss Me; Nobody Walks) and Fisher Stevens (Mission Blue; Bright Lights). 

Bates’ upcoming projects include Dark Sky Films’ Blackout, directed by Larry Fessenden and starring Marshall Bell, which hits theaters (limited run) on March 13th. Notable credits include Craig Gillespie’s Dumb Money; FX’s Class of ’09; AMC+’s Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches; Dean Craig’s comedy film The Estate; Michael Mohan’s thriller The Voyeurs; Michael Tyburski’s drama film The Sound of Silence; Starz's Sweetbitter; and the drama/sci-fi series Away; Netflix’s Golden Globe and Emmy-nominated mini-series Unbelievable; and the thriller limited series Devil in Ohio; SyFy’s hit series The Magicians; the George R.R. Martin produced series Nightflyers; Hulu’s series The Path; Chance; and The Looming Tower; NBC’s Rise; and more. Bates’ recent score for Michael Mohan’s Immaculate, starring Sydney Sweeney, premiered at SXSW on Tuesday, March 12th and hit theaters on March 22nd.

In an interview with Will Bates after the festival, here is what he had to say:
 

Can you tell us about your music background and what led you to film scoring?

WILL: I’ve always wanted to be a film composer. I think I was about 6 or 7 when I sang the entire score of Star Wars to my parents one morning. And once I realized that one man was responsible for all the tunes I’d been humming in my head, I decided I wanted to be John Williams when I grew up. I started playing the saxophone and at about 12 or 13 I got very into jazz. I had a rethink and thought maybe I’d like to be Cannonball Adderley instead. With my buddy Quentin Collins, I started playing in jazz clubs and bars around London from the age of about 14, masquerading as an 18-year-old, wearing my dad’s oversized suits. Then I discovered electronic music and released some obscure dance music on tiny London labels. I later moved to New York and became the lead singer of an Indie Rock band called The Rinse. We toured the US, opened for some big bands, and had a record released in Japan. But generally, we somehow dodged success like skilled ninjas. But all through that time, my lingering first love of scoring remained. The only way I ever learnt to support myself was by scoring commercials, first in London, and finally landing myself a gig as an in-house composer at a New York-based musi