35th Ankara Film Festival

Ankara Film Festival was held for the first time in 1988. The first film festival of the capital, Ankara, took place under the leadership of Mahmut Tali Öngören and Aziz Nesin, and with the partnership of Mülkiyeliler Union and Science and Art, Bilar A.Ş.

As the Ankara Film Festival offered programs that diversified and developed rapidly, it was interrupted in 1991 primarily due to the Gulf War. That year, the institutional foundations of the festival were laid down with the efforts of Mahmur Tali Öngören. The World Mass Media Research Foundation was established on January 11, 1991. The festival, included in the foundation's activities, was presented to the audience in 1992 as the 4th Ankara International Film Festival.

After the death of Turkey's great humorist Aziz Nesin in 1995, the "Labour Award" took over the name " Aziz Nesin Labour Award".

To commemorate Mahmut Tali Öngören, the founder of Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) and Turkey's first Cinematheque, who passed away in 1999, the festival decided to rename the Special Jury Award in the National Feature Film Competition as "Mahmut Tali Öngören Special Award" in 2000.

Mustafa Altıoklar, Zeki Demirkubuz, Yeşim Ustaoğlu, Fatih Akın, Yüksel Aksu, and Nuri Bilge Ceylan are among many productive and important names who have won prestigious awards at the Festival and who kickstarted their career in the film industry.

Mahmut Tali Öngören defines the Ankara Film Festival as "a tulip in the desert." With this definition, he mentioned the difficulty of creating and growing a film festival due to economic, political, and cultural difficulties despite being held in the capital.

In spite of all these difficulties, the festival gained strength and continued uninterruptedly for many years. Although it was interrupted again in 2004 due to the negative effects of the 2nd Gulf War and economic difficulties, today it welcomes its audience as a prestigious festival that has turned nearly half a century old.

Ankara Film Festival has invested in the future generations of national cinema since its establishment. Its primary goal is to discover and support new names that will shape the future of Turkish Cinema. In this context, a feature-length, short documentary film with qualified juries, as well as the World Cinema Section, is presented to the audience every year. It has also been an encouragement in other fields that support the art of cinema, such as Poster design and Project Development competitions. Various exhibitions ranging from illustrations and photography to video art were also hosted at the Festival.

On the other hand, within the festival's framework, panels, workshops, and conferences were organised in various fields ranging from history to sociology, from women's issues to sectoral issues, and contributed theoretically, academically, and practically to the cinema industry. The aim of the different workshops carried out is not only to provide practical experiences but also to make art accessible to different age groups ranging from children to young people and retirees. The festival brought together artists and the public annually, creating a synergy that spreads across the city.

Ankara Film Festival welcomes internally renowned guests, experienced artists who have worked in cinema for many years, promising young talents, wise academics, and passionate cinephiles. It brings together curious volunteers and residents of a huge city in the dreamy language of cinema and promises a brand new journey every year.