"Three Monkeys" Lead "Yeşilçam Awards"

The Yeşilçam Awards, named after the Istanbul street that served as the country's filmmaking hub during the Turkish movie industry's heyday from the 1950s to the '70s, were launched last year in a bid to boost film production in Turkey.

Dubbed the Turkish equivalent of the Oscars by the Turkish Foundation for Cinema and Audiovisual Culture (TÜRSAK), which organizes the event, the Yeşilçam Awards are given in 11 categories. These include best film, director, screenplay, soundtrack, actor, actress, supporting actor, supporting actress and first film. The best film statuette comes with a cash prize of TL 150,000 while the director of the best first film receives a TL 30,000 prize. Turkish productions released throughout the past year were eligible for the competition.

At this year’s awards ceremony at the Lütfi Kırdar Congress and Culture Hall, central Istanbul, the film “Three Monkeys” was awarded four of the eleven awards. Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, the film had previously been given the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival.

The female lead of the film, Hatice Aslan, was awarded Best Actress, while Onur Saylak was given the prize for Best Actor. He  played “Yusuf” in the film “Autumn” (Sonbahar) about the “Operation Return to Life”, when prisons were stormed by soldiers to end hunger strikes by prisoners in 2000. The operations ended with the deaths of over 30 prisoners.

The “Three Monkeys” film was also awarded Best Scenario (co-written by Ebru Ceylan, Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Ercan Kesal) and Best Visual Director (Gökhan Tiryaki).

The award for Best First Film was given to the “Autumn” film directed by Özcan Alper. In this category Turkcell users had decided on the winner.

The best supporting actress/actor roles went to Yıldız Kültür for acting a mother in the film “Issız Adam” (which can be translated as “The lonely man” or “My lonely island”) and to Altan Erkekli for his performance in the film “O…Çocukları”, a film about the children of prostitutes.

The film “Issız Adam” was awarded the Best Film Music award, while theDigitürk Young Talent Award went to Ahmet Rıfat Şungar from “Three Monkeys”.

The awards night was moderated by actor Halit Ergenç. Sponsored by Turkcell and organised by the Beyoğlu municipality together with TÜRSAK, the night featured many famous actors and actresses handing the awards to the winners.

The ENBE Orchestra accompanied the ceremony with popular classics from old Yeşilçam films.

The awards are based on the decisions of a jury of 1,500 people from the cinema, business, media and cultural sectors. (TK/AG)