The Ankara Cinema Association was founded in 1998 by a group of film enthusiasts who were already running the European Film Festival. Alongside the Festival on Wheels, a modern-day cinema troupe hosted every year in four-six cities, the Association has organized film weeks presenting different national cinemas. In the process, audiences in Ankara and a number of other cities have been introduced to the films of Finland, France, Britain, Israel, Iran, South Korea, Egypt, Greece and Canada.
At the same time, the Ankara Cinema Association gives great importance to Turkish cinema. In 2003, following a poll of 324 film professionals, the Association selected the Ten Best Turkish Films of all time and, with the support of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, KODAK and Fono Film Studio, created new English subtitled prints of the films. The Ten Best Turkish Films made their world premiere in July 2004 at the 39th Karlovy Vary Film Festival.
For all that, the Ankara Cinema Association sees more to cinema than simply screening films and, as a mark of this, has published several books, largely in tribute to prominent figures of Turkish Cinema. The titles include: ‘Oyuncu Tuncel Kurtiz’ (‘Tuncel Kurtiz, the Actor’), ‘Türk Sineması’nda Sansür’ (‘Censorship in Turkish Cinema’), ‘Adı Atıf Yılmaz’ (‘His Name is Atıf Yılmaz’), ‘Yönetmen Ömer Kavur’ (‘The Director Ömer Kavur’), ‘Yıldız: Hülya Koçyiğit’ (‘A Star of the Screen: Hülya Koçyiğit’), ‘Metin Erksan Sinemasını Okumayı Denemek’ (‘An Attempt to Analyse the Cinema of Metin Erksan’), ‘Kahkaha ve Hüzün: Sadri Alışık’ (‘Laughter and Melancholy: Sadri Alışık’), ‘Kader: Zeki Demirkubuz’ (‘Destiny: Zeki Demirkubuz’), ‘Aktör Dediğin Nedir Ki: Münir Özkul Kitabı’ (‘What’s An Actor Anyway: the Book of Münir Özkul’), ‘Sadeliğin Derinliğinde Bir Usta: Lütfi Akad’ (‘A Master of Simplicity: Lütfi Akad’) and ‘Özgürlüklerden Kayıplara ve Sonrası’ (‘From Freedom to Loss and Thereafter’).
At the same time, the Association has also involved itself in the filmmaking process, firstly as production coordinator on the Zeki Demirkubuz feature İtiraf (The Confession), which shot in Ankara in July 2001, and latterly as co-producer with state broadcaster TRT on Kaz Dağı Efsanesi (The Legend of Mount Ida), a documentary film by Tuncel Kurtiz.
In an altogether different capacity, the Ankara Cinema Association represents Turkey on a number of international projects. These include, amongst others, the Med-Screen Project, an initiative that covers Middle Eastern and African countries bordering the Mediterranean and aims to promote the films of these countries in the European market; and Greenhouse, a project devoted to the development of documentaries across the Mediterranean region, including Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Similarly, the Ankara Cinema Association contributes to the promotion of Turkish cinema overseas in its role as coordinator of the Turkish stand at premier international film festivals such as Cannes and Berlin.
In recognition of its ventures in almost every area of the film industry, the Ankara Cinema Association won the İFSAK (Istanbul Association of Film and Photography Amateurs) Cinema Award in 1999.
