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The Türkiye Cinema Festival will return for its second edition on Sept. 26-27, offering movie tickets for ₺90 ($1.84) across participating cinemas as organizers seek to bring audiences back into theaters and support cinema culture across the country.
The two-day festival is organized by the Cinema Hall Investors Association, or SISAY, with support from the Culture and Tourism Ministry's General Directorate of Cinema and Turkcell's youth-focused GNC brand as the main sponsor.
Organizers introduced this year's program at Atlas 1948 Cinema in Istanbul during an event attended by representatives from the film industry, producers, actors, directors and members of the press.
Birol Guven, director general of cinema at the Culture and Tourism Ministry, said movie tickets would be available for ₺90 across Türkiye during the weekend.
Guven stressed that going to the cinema was not simply about watching a film, but also about leaving home and sharing an artistic experience with other viewers.
"Parents used to struggle to get their children back home. Now this generation is trying to get their children out of the house, even out of their rooms. But where will they go when they leave their rooms and homes? They will go to the cinema. We invite all of them to the cinema and encourage them to come with their families," Guven said.
Describing movie theaters as a point of resistance against screen addiction, Guven also underlined Türkiye's long-standing cinema culture and said it should be preserved.
SISAY Vice Chairman Hakan Askar said the festival would take place in 75 provinces and around 1,500 cinema halls, with 17 films currently in theaters taking part, including "Odyssey," "Spider-Man" and "Avengers: Endgame."
Turkcell GNC Marketing Director Gokhan Aksu said the company aimed to make cultural and artistic activities more accessible to young people alongside technology and information.
Aksu said the festival hopes to reach 1.2 million viewers this year, while GNC's "buy one ticket, get one free" campaign will continue during the event.
Under the campaign, he said the effective cost of a ₺90 ticket would fall to ₺45 for young participants using the offer.
TAFF Pictures Chairman Cemal Okan said the cinema industry was going through a difficult period and needed events that could help increase audience numbers.
He described the festival as a celebration of cinema supported by producers and actors across the industry, adding that stakeholders were working together to expand the event and encourage more people to return to theaters.
Okan also said filmmaking had become more difficult in recent years and that TAFF Pictures would release three films for cinema audiences this year.
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