Best Film Prizes Awarded to 'House of Hummingbird' and 'A Tale of Three Sisters'

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Held for the 38th time this year, the awards of the İstanbul Film Festival, which is organized by the İstanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), were presented in a ceremony held yesterday (April 16).

In this year's festival, 175 feature-length and 11 short films were showcased and 52 films in total competed in national and international competitions.

While the Golden Tulip for the Best Film in International Competition has been awarded to "The House of Hummingbird" directed by Bora Kim, "A Tale of Three Sisters" by Emin Alper has won the award in national competition.

Best Film in International Competition: The House of Hummingbird by Bora Kim

In this year's international competition, 12 films from 10 countries were evaluated for the Golden Tulip, the grand prize of the festival.

Presided by Lynne Ramsay, the International Competition Jury has comprised award-winning filmmaker Philippe Lesage from Canada, award-winning actress Damla Sönmez, Moe Dunford and director of the Berlinale European Film Market, Matthijs Wouter Knol.

Accordingly, the Golden Tulip in the International Competition has been awarded to "The House of Hummingbird" directed by Bora Kim. The award has been granted to this film "for its delicacy, beauty, emotional impact and skill, beautiful portrayal of a young girl struggling to find her place in the world, waiting for the moment that her life will finally shine."

Bora Kim, Lynne Ramsay and Atalay Gümrah

The International Competition Special Jury Prize has been given to "Talking About Trees" directed by Suhaib Gasmelbari from Sudan.

The award has been granted by quoting from the film, "Sometimes the failures are so great that hope has to grow. Times when 'talking about trees is almost a crime because it implies silence about so many horrors!'"

Talking About Trees

Suhaib Gasmelbari, the director of the film, which has also been awarded the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) Prize, sent a message and stated that he could not attend the ceremony due to the historical changes that enfolding in his country Sudan over the last 10 days.

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Best Film in International Competition: A Tale of Three Sisters by Emin Alper

Chaired by director, writer and scriptwriter Ümit Ünal, the National Competition Jury has included actress Derya Alabora, actor Alican Yücesoy, cinematographer Andreas Sinanos and scriptwriter Gaye Boralıoğlu.

The National Competition Jury has distributed awards in 9 categories, including Golden Tulip Best Film, Special Prize of the Jury, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor and Best Screenplay.

Accordingly, the Golden Tulip for Best Film in National Competition has been awarded to "A Tale of Three Sisters" directed by Emin Alper.

Crew of A Tale of Three Sisters

Emin Alper has also won the Best Director Award while Cemre Ebuzziya, Ece Yüksel and Helin Kandemir have won the Best Actress Award for their roles in the same film.

The Best Original Music Award in the National Competition has also gone to Giorgos and Nikos Papaioannou for the film "A Tale of Three Sisters."

FIPRESCI Awards

The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) have also presented three awards as part of the 38th İstanbul Film Festival.

The FIPRESCI Awards have been granted to Talking About Trees "for the very elegant and bitter story of the last Don Quixotes of cinema;" to A Tale of Three Sisters "for the human complexity of the story, for the balance between drama and humour, for strong cinematic language" and to The Gentle Sadness of Things "for showing the depths of human condition in the context of family relationships as a cultural and emotional heritage."

(AÖ/SD)