21 November
Movie Review: Piece by Piece 
November 21, 2024 Movie Review: Piece by Piece
November 14, 2024 "Humor on the Margins: Cartoons in the Turkish Jewish Newspaper Şalom" by Rakel P. Meşulam
November 7, 2024 The "Ottoman and Turkish Ketubbot" Exhibition
November 4, 2024 TV Show Review: Nobody Wants This
November 1, 2024 The Irresistible Drunkenness of Reading Books
Hollywood Turkish Film & Drama Days 2024
November 25, 2024
By Bessy ADUT
It was an absolute pleasure to attend Hollywood Turkish Film and Drama Days 2024. I had been looking forward to this one since last year.
We would like to shout our thanks to Elif and Barbaros Tapan for their invitation to their astonishing event. They both looked very charismatic, and presentable and greeted their guests delightfully. The event experience was high quality. They both mentioned their strong connection and support to Turkish Film and Television. Thanks to Ecem Lawton for sharing the press visuals and information. And many special thanks to all of their festival event team for making this beautiful event possible.
Elif Zorlu Tapan, Helen Höehne, Barbaros Tapan
The red carpet was rolled out for Turkish Film and Television at Sony Pictures Studios. Many thanks to the Turkiye Ministry of Culture and Tourism for their support as well as OGM Pictures being the main sponsor and making this amazing event possible.
1st night of the event started with our world-renowned, accomplished director Zeki Demirkumbuz’s latest movie “Life.”
Life is a 2023 Turkish drama film directed by Zeki Demirkubuz. It was selected as the Turkish entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards. I had a conversation with the master director at the festival and I wish him all the best and success with his new movie. We are delighted to be represented with his film. Industry professionals and Turkish movies' passionate audience in LA came together at Sony Studios lot. Zeki Demirkumbuz, as well as his lead cast Cem Davran, Miray Daner and Burak Dakak joined the premiere where they received a lot of good attention both from the press and guests. After the screening, there was a high-quality Q&A session where the Director and the Cast answered questions.
Cem Davran, Miray Daner, Zeki Demirkubuz, Burak Dakak
Ecem Lawton, the award-winning female Director in Los Angeles, both presented and directed the event night. She truly was glamorous, shining like a star under the spot lights and did a wonderful job both as a director and host. She made a humorous speech as she was opening the night and made the audience laugh. As she was translating for Cinema general manager Birol Güven and "Life" cast and crew, there were many joyful moments.
Barbaros Tapan, Elif Zorlu Tapan, Ecem Lawton
Talented Akın Akınözü, Dilan Çiçek Deniz ve İsmail Hacıoğlu attended the 2-day event from Turkey.
Nick Pauley, who is a famous dancer and was a double for Ryan Reynolds in the Deadpool movie, did a nice dance show during the reception. Gigi Hadid’s father Mohamed Hadid, actress Luciana Faulhaber, Marina Mazepa, and Casey Ford Alexander didn’t leave their Turkish friends alone.
Helen Hoehne, president of Golden Globes, who is best known for the 80th Golden Globe Awards (2023), 81st Golden Globe Awards (2024), and 73rd Golden Globe Awards (2016) made a speech showing her support for Turkish film and television.
On the second night, I was also very impressed by the films and TV shows we have seen. The first short film was produced by Dilan Çiçek Deniz “Dilan Hakkında Konuşmalıyız.” This was a very relatable film by female filmmakers like myself and the presenter of the night Ecem mentioned the same thing. The story is about a young girl who studied Film & Television but struggled to make her first feature film upon graduation and had an existential crisis. It feels like a documentary but it’s fiction which is considered as a mockumentary. It was enjoyable to the international audience as well as the Turkish audience as I got the feel from my conversations. There were emotional moments as Ecem was presenting after the movie.
Akın Akınözü, Dilan Çiçek Deniz, Rafael Cemo Çetin, Ecem Lawton
Afterward, we had a chance to see 2 Turkish TV series episodes that was produced by OMG Pictures: "Şehrazat" and "Sahipsizler."
I was personally very touched by "Sahipsizler." It was a very sad story. Very impressed by the cast. All the children and young actors did a wonderful job, the cinematography was mesmerizing, the soundtrack was great, editing was good. I believe I am hooked after watching this first episode and would like to continue to watch more.
"Şehrazat" had a more of a traditional, classic Turkish film with a story of a rich daughter of a powerful father, the daughter lacking the love and support of her disadvantaged husband and a lot of tension between them due to not having kids. As well as another scientist woman character being pressured into traditional woman roles... I am curious how this story continues as well. All the lead actors were very dramatic and did a well-performed screen acting. I could feel the tension energy reflecting from the big screen.
İsmail Hacıoğlu, Elif Zorlu Tapan
After the screening, Berat Hamzaoğlu, General Coordinator of OMG Pictures, talked about behind the scenes of “Sahipsizler” TV series. He mentioned that they have a passion to tell the real-life stories that need to be told.
The 2-night organization was successfully completed with the attendance of celebrities, Turkish and other international guests from LA, Istanbul, and all over the world. There were members of the Academy and Golden Globes among the guests.
Elif Zorlu Tapan during an interview said, “We need more of these kinds of events so that we can spread our culture to larger audiences.” Co-architect of the festival event Barbaros Tapan emphasized the importance of the festival saying "It’s an honor to be able to show our Turkish stories at the prestigious Sony Studios in the center of Hollywood and this is a very important step to create the unity feeling for Turkish lobby.”
Hollywood Turkish Film and Drama Days 2024 aims to continue these events successfully in the coming years. This is going to help Turkish artists and their stories' voices to be heard and seen all over the world.
For more content on the festival and to follow them on social media or reach out to them, below is the info:
Instagram: @htfdlosangeles
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@HTFDLosAngeles
Website: www.e27globalmedia.com
e-mail: [email protected]
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