Organisers of the 14th Bosphorus Film Festival (Boğaziçi Film Festivali) have selected 10 features for this year’s international competition, which will take place in Istanbul from Nov. 8 to 15, Anadolu Agency reported on Oct. 14.
The films will compete for the festival’s top prize, the Golden Dolphin (Altın Yunus). The event is organised by the Bosphorus Culture and Arts Foundation with support from the Culture and Tourism Ministry’s Directorate General of Cinema.
Festival favourites from Cannes to San Sebastián
Several of the selected titles arrive with awards from major festivals. "Forever Your Maternal Animal" by Valentina Maurel, a Belgium-France-Mexico co-production about a woman who returns to Costa Rica and confronts her family’s past, screened in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes, where it won the best actress prize.
Japanese director Maha Harada’s "In My Father’s Room", in which a daughter discovers a mysterious envelope after her father’s death, won the FIPRESCI Prize and the Ateneo Guipuzcoano Prize at San Sebastián. "Simsim" by Jordan’s Sondos Al-Smerat, about a woman trying to find a new wife for a husband who will not divorce her, took a special mention for first-time screenwriters and the best actress award at the Amman International Film Festival.
The full line-up
The other contenders are:
– "18 Holes to Paradise" by Joao Nuno Pinto (Portugal, Italy, Argentina), set amid a dispute between owners and workers on a Portuguese estate, which premiered at Tallinn Black Nights; – "Balearic" by Ion de Sosa (Spain, France), about four young people who break into a luxury villa as a wildfire spreads, first shown at Locarno in 2025; – "Brew Before You Cry" by Gerardo Tassan (Argentina), an investigation into a suspicious death in a coastal town; – "Cat Kingdom" by John Hellberg and Bernhard Rasmusson (Sweden), following an unemployed engineer on the way to a job interview; – "Odyssey of Joy" by Zgjim Terziqi (Kosovo), in which Lis, who has lost a father in war, joins a French clown troupe, screened at the Cairo International Film Festival; – "Porte Bagage" by Abdelkarim El-Fassi (Netherlands), about a woman caring for her father with dementia while pursuing her career; – "Stand Up" by Mari Sanders (Netherlands, Greece), selected for Tribeca, Chicago and Thessaloniki in 2026.
How to attend
A competition pass covering all 10 films is on sale through the Mobilet ticketing platform for 900 lira. Screening times and venues will be posted on the festival’s official website and social media accounts.
Now in its 14th year, the Bosphorus Film Festival is one of Türkiye’s main autumn film events alongside the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival. Many international entries are shown in their original language with Turkish subtitles, so foreign viewers should check subtitle information before booking.
Sources
Photo: Moonik / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
