The Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival (Turkish: Antalya Altn Portakal Film Festivali), renamed Antalya International Film Festival for a few years starting in 2015, is a film festival hosted in Antalya since 1963. It is Turkey’s second most prominent film festival. Since 2009, the Antalya Cultural Center (Antalya Kültür Merkezi, AKM) has hosted the event, which is organized completely by the Antalya Foundation for Culture and Arts (Antalya Kültür Sanat Vakf, AKSAV), and includes an international part inside the main body of the festival.
Significance of Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival
The city of Antalya in southwest Turkey wanted to develop a logo in the 1960s, thus the region’s most important symbol, the orange, or portakal in Turkish, was used to make a Venus statue. The orange not only gave the festival its name, but it also became the symbol of the film festival’s awards, promoting Antalya internationally.
The major goal of this festival is to financially and spiritually support the Turkish cinema sector, or Türk sinema sektörü, as well as to inspire Turkish film producers to make high-quality films. This event also creates the groundwork for young and talented actors to move on to major shows around the world. There is an international competition as part of this festival’s schedule, in which renowned and fascinating European and Asian films compete.
Several hilarious scandals or skandallar have occurred during the Golden Orange Film Festival’s history, including those involving actors and actresses, political appeals, conflicts, and jealousies. The film festival was occasionally overshadowed by specific media incidents.
Hours before the actual award ceremony, the winners of the 44th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival were revealed on the internet. While this became a national embarrassment, many performers lost their cool when they learned they didn’t win an Oscar. Nurgül Yeşilçay, for example, stated that she would rather eat that orange than accept it as an award.
The Censor Council, or Sansür Kurulu, prevented two Turkish films from participating in the programme before the 16th Golden Orange Film Festival in 1979, and producers opposed the festival as a result. The festival was postponed till the next year as a result of this occurrence. In 1980, the celebration was postponed once more due to the military coup, or askeri darbe in Turkish, which took place the same year.
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Aspendos Amphitheatre
The event kicks off with a procession in Antalya’s city centre on the first day’s evening. In the presence of national and international cinema personalities, the opening ceremony takes place at the Konyaalt Amphitheatre or the Antalya Cultural Center. Honorary prizes for contributions to cinema are offered at this presentation.
The award ceremony will take place on the final night of the festival at the historic Aspendos Amphitheatre, which can accommodate up to 7,000 people. In the event of inclement weather, the award presentation is moved inside the Glass Pyramid Sabanc Congress and Exhibition Center, which has seating for only 2,500 people.