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ANTALYA: The Fourth Eurasian Film Festival
has seen a marginal increase of participation
from India in terms of delegates.
The
festival did not have a single entry from India
against at least one last year (Frozen
by Shivajee Chandrabhushan). In fact, the festival
last year also had greater Indian participation,
at least three other films- Shekhar Kapur’s
Elizabeth – the Golden Era, Asif
Kapadia’s Far North and A Mighty
Heart.
The
festival this year has one Indian – Osian’s
Raman Chawla - in the jury of the Network for
Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) and for the
first time has an Indian distributor - Sun Stone
Entertainment of Mumbai headed by Sanjay Jumani
– who has put up a stall in the three-day
Film Market.
In
addition, the market has three delegates including
Kamal Jain of Superfine Films and Sashi B Kumar
of Mudra Arts. Though in the the market, three
others including Ultra’s S Narayanan and
Sunil Doshi of Alliance Media (which procures
films for NDTV Lumiere), failed to turn up.
Interestingly,
Spierfilms of the United Kingdom which also
has a stall in the market, has been marketing
some Indian films like those by Priyadarshan.
The
one Indian film which was slated for a Gala
Screening here – Hindi thriller Mission
Istanbul directed by Apoorva Lakhia - was cancelled
because of what a festival spokesperson described
as a break of communication between the Indian
distributor and the festival authorities.
While
the large gathering at the inaugural venue was
held spell-bound by the highly popular singer
Candan Encetin who performed for almost two hours,
several senior personalities of Turkish cinema
were honoured for their contributions. They included
actress Hulya Avsar who received an award as a
successful star, honorary award went to SESAM
(Union of Professional Owners of Cinema Works)
President Yilmaz Atadeniz, renowned actor Musfit
Kenter who received the Yildrim Onal Memorial
Award, and actress Filiz Akin who received a special
medallion of the Golden Orange.
The
9-member jury headed by actor Tuncel Kurtiz will adjudge the Turkish feature films,
a five member jury headed by director Selim Demirdelen will adjudge the National
Short film competition and another five member jury headed by Günes Karabuda
– Director (Jury President) will examine the entries for documentaries. There
is also a jury for script development. | 
