Nine filmmakers from Armenia and Turkey participated in the Armenia-Turkey Cinema Platform (ATCP) workshop held in Yerevan on July 9-11, 2012 on the sidelines of the 9th Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival. The participating film projects, five from Armenia and four from Turkey, were handpicked by the ATCP pre-selection committee from among 25 applications to compete for a prize in the amount of $10,000.
The participating film projects were:
1. An Old Plane Tree Branch, dir. Mariam Ohanyan, prod. Tuna Yilmaz, Armenia
2. Dialogue, dir./prod. Arsen Arakelyan, Armenia
3. Looking for Manug, dir. Erdal Bilici, prod. Dilek Aydin, Turkey
4. Manuk’s Voyage, dir. Ozlem Sariyildiz, prod. Osman Sisman, Turkey
5. My and Your Sunday, dir./prod. Gagik Ghazareh, Armenia
6. One Life, One Love, dir. Gagik Harutyunyan, prod. Sona Grigoryan and Ozlem Sariyildiz, Armenia/Turkey
7. Salem Abdul-Karem, dir. Ashot Mkrtchyan, prod. Anahit Mkrtchyan, Armenia
8. Silent Graves, dir./prod. Zeynel Koc, Cenk Ortulu, Turkey
9. Ziazan, dir. Derya Durmaz, prod. Yoel Marenda, Turkey
The three-day workshop included a screening of two works-in-progress – Wonderful, Very Nice – From America to Bitlisby Lusin Dink and Soner Alper, and Back to Gurun by Adrineh Gregorian – as well as discussions between Armenian and Turkish filmmakers and trainers, a practical lecture on seeking funding in Europe and networking to support film production, and project presentations by the filmmakers to the ATCP jury.
During the award ceremony on July 11, 2012, which wrapped up the workshop, Ozlem Sariyildiz’s “Manuk’s Voyage” film project was selected to receive the $10,000 prize which will go towards the film’s production costs.
The organizers hosted three Turkish journalists including Berke Gol from Altyazi Monthly Cinema Magazine, Senay Aydemir from Radikal Daily, and Olkan Ozyurt from Sabah Newspaper who covered the Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival and the works of the Armenia-Turkey Cinema Platform.
ATCP was born out of cooperation between Anadolu Kultur (Turkey) and Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival (Armenia) in 2008 with the aim of establishing a common network through which filmmakers from both countries are able to cooperate and produce films together. Since its foundation, ATCP has supported the production of 12 films by filmmakers from Armenia and Turkey.
Over the past two years, ATCP has been supported through the USAID-funded “Support to Armenia-Turkey Rapprochement” project implemented by the Eurasia Partnership Foundation, International Center for Human Development, Yerevan Press Club and Union of Manufacturers and Businessmen of Armenia, and a number of core partners in Turkey, including Anadolu Kultur.
Source: Eurasia Partnership Foundation
