Message of the Festival Director

''Through the Lens of Conscience.''

36,000 kilometers · 6 countries · 29 cities · 12 festivals

This is the distance I have traveled between two festivals over the past year.
This journey has shown me not only how far I’ve come, but also more clearly where we stand. The fact that our festival is recognized in many parts of the world has become a strong source of motivation for us.

At the festivals I attended, reconnecting with directors whose films had been finalists in our festival in previous years has become one of the most tangible indicators of the bonds we’ve built and the impact we’ve created.

Despite all this international visibility, we are organizing this year’s festival with the lowest level of support we have ever received. While this situation once again reminds us of the fragility faced by independent cultural production, it also makes the value of solidarity, collective creation, and persistence even more visible for us.

The collaborative projects we have carried out with film festivals in Portugal, Belgium, France, Serbia, Iran, and Egypt have gone beyond film exchange; they have evolved into a collective production space through joint panels, workshops, jury exchanges, and program collaborations.

This year, 69 films from 28 countries will meet the audience as part of the festival.
Among them, 27 films will have their world premieres and 30 their Turkey premieres in Izmir. While opening space for unique narratives shaped through women’s perspectives, we continue to bring dozens of directors together with audiences.

Born in Izmir, this festival now resonates across a wide geography—from Europe to the Middle East, from Latin America to Asia.

Through the “Creating Characters from Izmir Project Development Workshops,” we provide space for new stories to take root in Izmir, and we continue to support cinema students within the festival in gaining their first production experiences.

To my dear team and family who have been with me since the very beginning of this journey; to Sema Pekdaş, Dilaver Bayındır, Sevinç Baloğlu, Aysim Türkmen, Banu Bozdemir, Dilek Çolak; to Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Department of Culture and Arts and all its staff; to Institut français Izmir, the Italian Friendship and Culture Association, Ahmed Adnan Saygun Art Center, Goethe-Institut Izmir; to the staff of Sancar Maruflu Civil Society Campus; to our jury members and workshop instructors; to Private Sağlık Hospital and Kenan Kalı, İlknur Güneyli; to Balçova Municipality and its staff, to Çeşme Municipality and its staff; to Megapol Culture Center and Selim Gökdemir; to Bortar and Hasan Küçükkurt; to Kaya Prestige and all its staff; to Damla Birol, Elif Özaydın, and Vahit Bora—my deepest thanks to all of you.

I wish everyone an inspiring, hopeful, and transformative festival week.

I invite you to Izmir between April 24–29, 2026, to become a part of this collective story.

Gülten Taranç
Festival Director / Filmmaker