The İstanbul LGBTI+ Pride Week Committee has criticized the removal of a queer cinema section from the 2025 İstanbul Film Festival lineup, accusing organizers of censorship through omission and calling for a boycott.

Since 2014, the festival had featured a section titled Nerdesin Aşkım? (Where Are You My Love?) dedicated to queer-themed films. The committee described the absence of the section as "a new phase in the policies of invisibility and censorship in the cultural field."

“This is not merely a change in the program, but also an indication of the systematic exclusion of queer cinema,” said the committee statement. “We know that this is not the first act of censorship by the İstanbul Film Festival, which has chosen to maintain close ties with the state.”

Organized annually by the İstanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), the festival has faced criticism in the past over its decisions regarding local film categories. The committee also referred to last year’s cancellation of the National Competition and National Documentary Competition, which it claimed restricted platforms for local filmmakers and enabled censorship of Kurdish cinema.

'Criminalizing LGBTI+s'

The group linked the removal of the queer section to the government’s "Year of the Family" campaign for 2025. “We recognize this decision as part of a broader effort to criminalize and isolate LGBTI+s under current political pressures,” the committee said.

"Censorship works not only by removing films from the program, but also by silence. We invite the İstanbul Film Festival to protect freedom of expression, which is the most fundamental power of cinema, because this discrimination and censorship is not only for LGBTI+s.

"Censorship and discrimination in artistic production disrupts the struggle for other rights and freedoms. We say that we will boycott the festival until they stand against censorship, we cancel our Tulip Card memberships and do not buy tickets for the festival.

"We invite everyone to join this boycott.  We will continue to stand against this decision that ignores queer existences with the power of solidarity!”

Response from festival organizers

In a statement for bianet regarding the criticism, İFF said this year's festival comprises fewer sections with more films.

"The change in the sections does not affect the content of the film selection at the festival. Films that could have been included in the sections Nerdesin Aşkım?, Çiçek İstemez and Musikişinas in previous years are included under other sections this year," said the organizers.

Contacted by bianet about the statement, the Pride Week committee said they would continue the boycott regardless as the organizers "neither deny censorship nor explain what happened with sincerity."

"This is how the festival has responded to the reactions to every censorship case in the past," said the committee. "In recent years, rather than having to censor, they have come up with solutions such as removing sections completely, and this attitude, which they see as a solution, opens up space for the censorship mechanisms to operate even more deeply.

"We do not accept this attitude, we will continue the boycott until the festival defends freedom of expression and stands against censorship." (TY/VK)