The 29th edition of the International Adana Golden Boll Film Festival, which has one of the unique cinephile audience profiles in Türkiye, will be held on Sept. 12-8 this year. A spectacular selection of 33 movies from 34 countries will be screened as part of the festival in the southern Adana province.

At the festival, a selection of 33 films consisting of the best of world festivals, especially Cannes, will meet spectators in memory of the festival's late director Kadir Beycioğlu. The selection includes films by masters such as Claire Denis, The Dardenne Brothers, Cristian Mungiu, Hirokazu Koreeda, as well as young talent.

Bests of Cannes

The International Adana Golden Boll Film Festival will screen the best movies of the Cannes Film Festival for cinephiles this year.

One of the original directors of today's French cinema, Denis, who has created many classics like "Chocolat" ("Chocolate"), "35 rhums" ("35 Shots of Rum") and "White Material," moves the audience away from the geography they are familiar with in her movies in "Stars at Noon," which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival this year. She goes to Central America from Africa, where she grew up, and France, where she lived, and depicts the passionate relationship between a journalist woman who is stranded in Nicaragua and a mysterious businessman.

Double Palme d'Or winners Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne Brothers did not return empty-handed from the Cannes Film Festival this year. They won the festival's special 75th Anniversary Award with "Tori and Lokita," in which two West African immigrants are dragged into illegal jobs while trying to hold on in Europe.

Hirokazu Koreeda, who previously won the Palme d'Or with his "Shoplifters," rocked Cannes this year with his stories that touched the hearts of the audience and his smooth directing that makes you forget the existence of the camera. "Broker," which chronicles the illegal effort of two men who kidnapped an abandoned baby to find him a good family and the baby's regretful mother, was honored with the Ecumenical Jury Award and brought Song Kang-ho the Best Actor Award.

Swedish director Tarek Saleh, whose father is Egyptian, received the Best Screenplay Award at the Cannes Film Festival with "Boy from Heaven," whose story was set at Cairo Al-Azhar University but shot in Istanbul. The film, which deals with the dark relations between intelligence organizations and clergy, is the second feature-length fiction of Saleh, who has moved from journalism to documentaries. He won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2017 with his first fiction novel, "The Nile Hilton Incident," which is about a sex worker murder investigation that disturbed the cream of society in the backdrop of the Egyptian revolution.

"Nostalgia," which brings together the leading director of Italian cinema, Mario Martone, most of whose films have competed in Venice, and Pierfrancesco Favino, one of the most admired actors of his generation, was among this year's nominees for the Palme d'Or. Favino gives an extraordinary performance in the film where Martone tells an extraordinary story of return, revenge and friendship in the backdrop of the city of Naples, where only the church can resist the mafia.

The new Li Ruijun movie, "Return to Dust," which competed at the Berlin Film Festival, will also be screened in Adana. The tragic film, which tells the love of two fine souls who resist poverty and prejudices and their effort to make life beautiful, with a unique humanism, is a new gem from the Chinese director, known for "The Summer Solstice."

In memory of Özer

Another Golden Palm nominee this year was "R.M.N." by Cristian Mungiu, one of the most successful representatives of Romanian cinema. He won the Palme d'Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival for his film "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," which he wrote and directed. He has also won the awards for best screenplay and best director at the 2012 and 2016 Cannes Film Festivals, for his films "Beyond the Hills" and "Graduation."

"R.M.N." is a film that brings together all the features appreciated in Mungiu's cinema and mirrors the racism problem of Romania, which has risen with the economic crisis. This film of Mungiu, one of the favorite directors of the cinema writer Murat Özer, who passed away this year, will be screened in his memory.

Rising directors

Directors that have won important awards with their first or second films and that attract the attention of critics will give moviegoers a taste of discovery at the 29th Adana Golden Boll Film Festival, as well.

Winner of the Un Certain Regard award at the Cannes Film Festival, Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret's "The Worst Ones" heralds the masters of the future with its strong and fresh cinematic feeling. Flemish actor Johan Heldenbergh, whom we are familiar with from Felix van Groeningen's "The Brand New Testament," plays a director who shoots a documentary in a disadvantaged region, blending his social realist approach with humor in the movie.

The Best Screenplay Award of the Un Certain Regard section was given to Palestinian Maha Haj, whom we know for her film "Personal Affairs." Her "Mediterranean Fever" conveys how many Palestinians, including the director herself, feel pressured through the story of depressed Waleed living in Haifa and his new neighbor, who is a small-time swindler. This example of black humor also offers examples from Palestinian poetry and music.

Tunisian-French Erige Sheri saw great success at festivals with the "As-Sekka" documentary about two railway employees being stuck between being loyal to their institution and reporting train accidents. Filmmaker Seghiri not only tells of incompetence and corruption but also of dignity, resilience and new hope.

Manuela Martelli, whom we know as an actress in the films of worldwide successful directors of Chilean cinema, was invited to many festivals including San Sebastian after she was selected for the Directors' Fortnight with her first feature film and was included in the competition. Defining the violence of the dictatorship period as an extension of the patriarchal order carefully protected by the political power, the church and the ruling bourgeoisie, "1976" stands out with its cinematic subtleties as well as its political sensibility.

Camera d'Or, L'Oeil d'or

The Camera d'Or ("Golden Camera") is an award of the Cannes Film Festival for the best first feature film presented in one of the Cannes' selections. L'Oeil d'or is a documentary film award created in 2015. It is awarded to the best documentary presented in one of the sections of the Cannes Film Festival. Adana Film Festival introduces the winners of these sections to Turkish cinephiles this year.

Winning the Golden Camera Award at Cannes this year, "Butterfly Vision" is a Ukrainian production and inevitably presents a slice of war. The script, written by director Maksym Nakonechnyi and Iryna Tsilyk, depicts the trauma experienced by air reconnaissance expert Lilya, who is released after being held captive in Donbass for two months, and the dirty war in general from a female point of view.

Having been selected as the best documentary at the Sundance and then the Cannes film festivals this year, "All That Breathes" is a film that inspires hope for the human species that still has consciousness and goodness in it. It focuses on the efforts of two brothers living in New Delhi to save some birds that died en masse due to air pollution. Shaunak Sen, who tells the search for a safe place for the homeless in New Delhi to sleep in his first feature-length documentary, "Cities of Sleep" achieved extraordinary success in his second film and received the Golden Eye award.

"Angels of Sinjar," which won an award at the Geneva Human Rights Film Festival and International Forum, is an impressive documentary about the struggle of Hanife, a survivor of the Yazidi genocide, to rescue her five sisters who were kidnapped by Daesh. The Polish-German co-production, Hanna Polak's "Angels of Sinjar" reveals how easily one of the most terrifying events of our time is accepted in the world.

Humor

In the program of the 29th festival, the productions that contain humor even if they are not comedies will give the audience a breath of fresh air among the films that deal with all kinds of exploitation and violence, from wars to brutal capitalism.

Polish director Anna Kazejak, who built her career mostly on television works, is also assertive in cinema. In "F*cking Bornholm," she deals with the family crisis on a holiday with all its dramatic weight and comforts the audience with humor.

Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli's "Sick of Myself" stood out among the films in the Cannes Un Certain Regard section with its black humor. Signe and Thomas are in an unhealthy, competitive relationship that takes a vicious turn when Thomas suddenly breaks through as a contemporary artist. In response, Signe makes a desperate attempt to regain her status by creating a new persona hell-bent on attracting attention and sympathy.

Scotland's Charlotte Wells received the French Touch award from the jury at the Cannes Critics' Week with her first feature film "Aftersun." Wells, who is expected to follow the path opened by master directors such as Lynne Ramsay and Andrea Arnold, deals with the father-daughter relationship by blending the memories of a Türkiye holiday, without neglecting the British humor and irony.