23rd Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival

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Festival Teaser

23rd Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival

This year, 23^nd Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival was held between 7-14 May 2020 online for the first time in its history, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The festival theme was “#WeStayedAtHome”. The film screenings and festival activity venue was the website of Flying Broom Foundation (https://flyingbroom.org/). The opening and closing ceremonies of the festival were held online as well.

The 23^nd Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival has increased its visibility with appearance in the printed and visual media before and during the festival week. At the same time, news about the festival is shared on our social media accounts. Our social media accounts are as follows:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ucansupurgee/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ucansupurgeukff

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UcanSupurgeVAKFI

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC699hfIFEY8Ie1thLwsIqig

Festival Film Selection

In this festival, 1301 film applications were received and an international selection of 76 films (by women directors) from 31 countries was created.

The categories according to themes are Each Has A Different Color, At Home, At Limbo, At the Street , Those Who Can’t StayHome, Ideological Masculinity Apparatuses, Homeless&Rootless, Breaking Free, Family: The Scene Of Incident and Beyond Pink And Blue. In addition to these tematic categorization, we had an Ireland Selection and Africa Selection.

We would like to especially thank the Embassy of Spain in Ankara for supporting the screenings of The Encounter (Encontrarnos) and You Will Be A Man; Embassy of Canada in Ankara for supporting the screenings of Le Salon(The Livingroom) and Nothing to See Here; Embassy of the Netherlands for supporting the screening of Φ and the interview with its director Marieta Landkroon; the Embassy of Switzerland for supporting the screening of Vagenda Stories; Institut Français for supporting the screenings of I Only See What Believe and Intentional Sweat; Embassy of Israel for supporting the screenings of Apple of My Eye and 21 Days Inside.

We also want to thank to the Embassy of Ireland for making it possible for us to have an Ireland Selection by our collaboration with Dublin Feminist Film Festival. Screening of the following movies are supported in this regard: The Beekeeper, Legend Has It, Mood Atlas, The Bird and The Whale, Early Days, The Girl At The End of the Garden, Run and Town of Strangers as well as the interviews with Robyn Conroy, Ciara Johnson and Treasa O’Brien.

Festival Films

FIPRESCI Prize

Flying Broom is the first women’s film festival that gives The International Federation of Film Critics – FIPRESCI Award. In this year, 10 films from 10 countries of the 2019-2020 season were featured in the FIPRESCI section. The jury members Dana Duma from Romania, Hélène Robert from France and Mark Adams from UK participated to the festival. The FIPRESCI 2020 Award at the 23^nd Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival was given to Make Me Up by Rachel Maclean.

Pre-Festival Workshops

Just like every year, in addition to the film screenings, the festival was supported by workshops and interviews. During the pre-festival week(2-6 May 2020) we organized 18 workships in total. The list is as follows:

Workshops for Children (2 – 3 May 2020)

‘Child Yoga and Movement’ Workshop by Deniz Okumuş
‘Making Up’ Workshop by Gökçen Zorcu
‘Flipbook Animation’ and ‘Thaumatrope’ Workshop by Şenay Aydın
‘Story Reading’ Workshop by Elif Özmenek Çarmıklı
‘An Interesting Tale’ Workshop by Tuğçe Eda Sarıgül Fırdolaş
‘Improvisational Story Creation’ Workshop by Nilay Yılmaz
‘Creative Writing for Children’ Workshop by Firuze Engin
‘Philosophy with Kids’ Workshop by Zişan Kürüm
‘Philosophy for Children-P4C’ Workshop by Şennaz Uzun
‘Silent Book Reading: Where Is This Elephant?’ Workshop by Gökçe Türkmen
‘Film Analysis for Children’ Workshop by Şebnem Aktolga

Workshop for Adults (4 -6 May 2020)

‘Legal Protection for Women Under the Quarantine’ Workshop by Ebru Akkal
‘Possibility: Rethinking the Memory Space’ Workshop by Berfin Azdal
‘I am a Tree’ Workshop by Merve Kurt Duman
‘When Objects Talk’ Workshop by Sevgi Can Yağcı
‘Film Music: Sounds of a Visual World’ Workshop by Mustafa Avcı
‘Empower Yourself to Empower the Children Against Child Abuse’ Workshop by Cansu Yumuşak & Sevinç Koçak

Interviews During the Festival Week

Interviews with film directors are one of the most interesting parts of the festival. Traditionally, Flying Broom prefers Question&Answer sessions to build a bridge between the audience and directors but this year we preferred interviews for practical purposes of an online festival. We also included some pre or after movie talking sessions with experts, award winner actresses or activists.

Interviews with Directors

Sezen Kayhan (from Advisory Board of the festival) interviewed Treasa O’Brien (director of Town of Strangers)
Dicle Kızılkan (International Relations Manager of the Festival) interviewed Marieta Landkroon (director of Φ)
Fatma Edemen (from Advisory Board of the festival) interviewed Robyn Conroy (director of The Beekeper) and Ciara Johnson (director of Legend Has It)
Dilek Aydın (a director) interviewed Zeynep Güzel (director of Come Rain or Sun)
Bahar Şimşek (from Advisory Board of the festival) interviewed Pelin Esmer (director of Queen Lear)

Other Interviews and Discussion Sessions

Mahir Şaul (Kadir Has University, Anthropology) and Ece Güneş Saadetyan (from Selection Committee of the Festival) had a discussion session about cinema in Africa and Africa Selection of the Festival.
Çiğdem Çıdam (Union College, Political Theory) and Fırat Yücel (director, edito-in-chief of Altyazı Cinema Magazine) had a discussion session about the documentary called Your Turn, the student movements in Brazil and civil protests in Turkey in the past such as Gezi.
V’cenza Cirefice (ecofeminist activist) and Bahar Topçu (from Yeşil Gazete) had a discussion session about ecofeminism.
Özge Akkoyunlu (from Advisory Board of the festival, director) and Berrin Balay (Board Member of the Flying Broom foundation, director) interviewed Demet Derelioğlu Aran (director of Lunchbox)
Funda Şenol Cantek (from Advisory Board of the festival) and Melek Göregenli (Psychology) had a discussion session about the movie Highway.
Ayşegül Sönmez (from Advisory Board of the festival) interviewed Handan İpekçi (director, winner of this year’s Bilge Olgaç Achievement Award).
Sündüz Haşar (Board Member of the Flying Broom foundation) interviewed Şahika Tekand (actress, winner of this year’s Flying Broom Honorary Award).
Sevilay Çelenk (from Advisory Board of the festival) interviewed Sevil Demirci (producer, winner of this year’s Bilge Olgaç Achievement Award).
Biket İlhan and Işıl Özgentürk (screenwriter, winner of this year’s Bilge Olgaç Achievement Award) had a discussion session.

Festival Awards

Just like every year, Flying Broom gave precious awards in 23^rd Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival and announced the awards at the opening ceremony.

The Flying Broom Honorary Award (Onur Ödülü) was given to Nebahat Çehre and Şahika Tekand
Bilge Olgaç Achievement Award (Bilge Olgaç Başarı Ödülü) was given to Işıl Özgentürk, Handan İpekçi and Sevil Demirci
Young Witch Award (Genç Cadı Ödülü) was given to Cemre Ebüzziya.
Theme Award (Tema Ödülü) was given to women who had to stay at home due to the quarantine and women who had to go work even when there is the pandemic.