The 15th !f Istanbul Independent Film Festival

The 15th !f Istanbul Independent Film Festival comes to Istanbul Thursday 18 through Sunday 28 February. Lighting up the month with the year’s most talked about films, long-awaited parties and creative brand of events, workshops and talks, this year’s edition already looks set to be a massive success. With a focus of bringing people together across all boundaries, curators strive to offer a contemporary selection of inspiring, thought-provoking and relevant films to showcase.

This year’s thematic sections include !nspired Competition, Love & Change Competition, !f Music, Play, Rainbow, Art & Life, David Bowie Is…, Altered States, Home, Dark & Edgy, !f Cult, !f Special Screenings, Shorts from Turkey, and the much coveted Galas. Such thematic diversity allows for the inclusion of works that push traditional boundaries, while affording the organizers flexibility in their selections. A full list of this year’s festival sections can be found here.

Among this year’s most anticipated films from the Galas are “A Bigger Splash” (director Luca Guadagnino), “The Diary of a Teenage Girl” (director Marielle Heller), “The End of the Tour” (director James Ponsoldt), “He Named Me Malala” (director Davis Guggenheim), “Into the Forest” (director Patricia Rozema), “Kill Your Friends” (director Owen Harris), “Mon Roi/My King” (director Maïwenn), “Þrestir/Sparrows” (director Rúnar Rúnarsson), “This Changes Everything” (director Avi Lewis), “The Wolfpack” (director Crystal Moselle) and many more. “Innocence of Memories” (director Grant Gee), based on Orhan Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence will also be screened following its critically acclaimed world premiere in Venice. This year’s opening film is “Anomalisa” (director Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson), with “Demolition” (director Jean-Marc Vallée) closing off the festival. A full schedule of this year’s films can be found here.

For those looking for a bit of active engagement, the 15th anniversary also boasts a number of events categorized under Small Conversations and Interventions, Workshops, Art & Life, and !F Music. Some highlights include “In Conversation: Grant Gee and Orhan Pamuk on Storytelling, Film and Istanbul“, “The Act of the Image“, the “MAC Make-Up Workshop #MakeUpByMe“, “Listening to One Another: Where All Good Stories Start” and several others. A full list can be found here.

With screenings taking place at Cinemaximum City’s Nişantaşı, Cinemaximum Budak / CKM, Beyoğlu Fitaş and Cinemaximum Kanyon (with other events taking place at venues around the city such as Babylon Bomonti and Depo), tickets for this year’s festival can be purchased via Biletix. Weekday daytime tickets (before 19:00) are 9 TL, weekend and evening tickets are 18 TL (15 TL for students) and late night tickets (21:30 – 00:00) are 20 TL. Earlybird tickets are available from Friday 5 to Sunday 7 February at a 10% discount. Shorts from Turkey films are all free of charge. All films feature English and Turkish subtitles unless otherwise announced. For more information, a full program, detailed film descriptions, trailers and more, check out the official site.