Incentives for Turkish cinema doubled

In 2014, Turkish films produced with Culture and Tourism Ministry incentives made Turkey’s name heard at leading international film festivals The Culture and Tourism Ministry has doubled its incentives for Turkish cinema compared to last year, paying out nearly 27 million Turkish Liras to new film projects.

In recent years, cinema has become a significant tool boosting Turkey’s recognition in the international arena. This led the ministry to double the incentives for the Turkish cinema sector in order to increase the quality and number of Turkish productions that frequently return from the world leading film festivals such as Cannes, Berlin and Rotterdam with awards.

The ministry formed the Cinema General Directorate three years ago for Turkish cinema to increase its competitive power against international productions and become a brand.

Filmmakers have so far applied to the directorate with 951 projects in various categories including documentary, short film, animation, scriptwriting and dialogue writing. Among them, 89 documentary film projects received 3,185 liras; 55 short film projects received 472,250 liras; 54 script and dialogue writing applications received 472,500 liras and 14 animation projects received 140,000 liras in support.
The ministry also provided 10 million liras to 100 events, 64 in Turkey and 36 abroad, in 2014.

Success of Turkish productions

In 2014, during which the centenary of Turkish cinema is being celebrated in Turkey and abroad, the grand award of the Cannes Film Festival went to “Kış Uykusu” (Winter Sleep), directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan with contributions from the ministry. Ceylan was the second Turk to win the grand award at Cannes after the...