Awards are Presented to Winners of the 1st Sabancı Foundation Short Film Competition Themed ‘Refugee Women’

- Celebrities Were Highly Interested in the Award Ceremony

- Next Year’s Theme for the Competition will be ‘Child Labor’

Awards were presented to winners of the Short Film Competition initiated by Sabancı Foundation under the name “Short Film Long Impact”. Sabancı Foundation Chair of the Board of Trustees Güler Sabancı and Sabancı Foundation General Manager Zerrin Koyunsağan hosted the award ceremony of the Short Film Competition, which aims to address social issues through art and to raise awareness about social issues by making use of the creative perspective of the cinema.

The jury comprising of Emin Alper, Tuba Büyüküstün, Ebru Ceylan, Stefan Arsenijevic and Guy Seligmann selected those qualifying for an award among the 15 films that made it beyond the preliminary assessment out of 126 films submitted to the competition themed “Refugee Women”.  

“The first step to be taken in the subjects that need to be improved about social development is to create an awareness in wider masses”

Referring to Charles Darwin’s remarks about the significance of science and art in her speech at the award ceremony, Güler Sabancı said: “Science and art are like the two wings of a bird.Societies that can use both wings fly and become free.” At Sabancı Foundation, we aim to strengthen these two wings of society through our activities. For the last decade, we have been realizing grant programs and thus we have been contributing to social development. Yet more importantly, we support the development of civil society, which is the key to social development. The first step to be taken in the subjects that need to be improved about social development is, without doubt, to create an awareness in wider masses. We see that addressing social issues through art is very effective in spreading the issue to wider masses.”

Stating that through the Short Film Competition they aim to address social issues through art and to raise awareness about social issues by making use of the creative perspective of the cinema, Sabancı added: “We determined the theme of the first competition as ‘refugee women’. Research shows that women and children account for 70% of the global refugee population. Leaving their countries due to obligatory reasons, women face various attacks, violence and dangers. It is necessary to take action to ensure that refugee women and all women are protected against dangers and have equal rights. The first step in this process is possible through making the problems experienced visible and ensuring that these problems are comprehended by all. Here, right at this point, cinema and the art of cinema come into play. Each and every film submitted to our competition is very valuable. With the trust we have in artists, in their power of expression and creativity, we hope that all short films created be a step in the way to solution. With all my heart, I believe films that make the problems of refugee women visible will each be short but effective tools to make the voice of refugee women heard across the world.

The 1st Prize Awarded to Mustafa Koray Polat for his film “Duvar” (The Wall)

Sabancı Foundation Chair of the Board of Trustees Güler Sabancı presentedFirst Prize to Mustafa Koray Polat for his film “Duvar” (The Wall) and Sabancı Foundation General Manager Zerrin Koyunsağanpresented Second Prize to Ramazan Kılı for his film “Penaber” while  Reza Deghati, the world-famous photographer who created this year’s message, presented Third Prize to Ali Rıza Erdemir for his film “Sınır” (The Border).

Melih Can Dürserand Beyza Kaya, the directors of the film titled “Bir Hayatlık Göz” that won the Jury’s Special Award, were presented with their award by the art director of the competition Zeynep Atakan.

First Prize was 15,000 TL, Second Prize was 10,000 TL and Third Prize was 5,000 TL.

Theme for next term’s competition is “Child Labor”

Announcing the theme of next year’s competition after the awards were granted, Sabancı stated: “While determining the theme of the next year, we wanted to touch a sore spot, a social problem, that is not only a problem in our country but also across the world. The theme of the next competition is ‘child labor’.”

Celebrity parade at the award ceremony

The award ceremony attended by many famous names began with a celebrity parade on the Sabancı blue carpet. Many renowned names from business and social circles as well as Şenay Gürler, Hatice Aslan, Melisa Tapan and Güneri Civaoğlu came to the award ceremony.

126 films submitted to the competition, the winning three chosen among 15 finalists

The participants of the Short Film Competition, which accepted submissions between September 8 and December 5, 2016, were expected to depict the issue of refugee women from their own unique perspectives in 5 minutes the longest. 436 user accounts were created on the website www.kisafilmuzunetki.org in the application period.  Films uploaded by these accounts were assessed and 126 works conforming to the regulations were chosen. These works passed the assessment of the preliminary jury and 15 finalist projects were announced on the website on January 4, 2017. The Jury made the final evaluation and the three projects worthy of an award were announced at the award ceremony.