17th International Adana Golden Boll Film Festival
The International 17th Adana Golden Boll Film Festival was a film festival held in Adana, Turkey which ran from September 20 to 26, 2010. Prizes totalling 575,000 Turkish Liras were awarded in three categories and more than 200 films were shown at nine different locations, including the Cinebonus, Airplex and Metropol cinemas, in the course of the festival, at which films promoting the ideals of democracy were shown and Greek Director Theo Angelopoulos was the guest of honor. This edition of the International Adana Golden Boll Film Festival, which was founded in 1969 and is organised by the Adana Metropolitan Municipality and accredited by FIPRESCI, opened with a screening of La Mujer sin Piano by Javier Rebollo at the city's municipal theater on the evening of September 21 and included gala ball at Park Zirve on the evening of September 23, at which lifetime achievement awards were presented to actress Müjde Ar, a selection of whose films were screened, and film critic Atilla Dorsay. The festival closed with an awards ceremony presented by Oktay Kaynarca and Öykü Serter on the evening of September 25. Other celebrities present at the festival included Ümit Ünal, Yılmaz Köksal, Bulut Aras, Nuri Alço, Suzan Avcı, Rıza Sönmez, Sibel Can, Zuhal Olcay, Göksel and Erol Evgin. Palestinian filmmakers, Nasri Hajjaj and Liana Badr were also be present at the festival to chair a special program Palestine, Longing for Peace dedicated to films and documentaries portraying Middle Eastern issues and to take part in a panel entitled Making Movies in Palestine. The festival was originally scheduled for June 7 to 13, 2010 but was postponed, following the May 31, 2010 Gaza flotilla raid and a terrorist rocket attack on the Iskenderun Naval Base, with Adana Deputy Mayor Mustafa Tuncel announcing, We cannot have fun while people are crying. The Turkish Film Critics Association protested the decision, saying that postponing the festival, resulted in the silencing of Palestinian filmmakers.
Eight documentary films, seven experimental films, ten fictional films and eight animation films by undergraduate students studying at cinema and television departments of Turkey’s communications and fine arts faculties were selected to compete in the festival’s National Student Films Contest.
Eleven documentary films, eight experimental films, twenty-eight fictional films and fourteen animation films were selected from the 368 films that applied to compete in the festival’s Mediterranean Countries Short-films Contest.
