This year, the Labor Awards at the International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival will be presented to Feride Çiçekoğlu and Cansu Baydar.
At the 24nd International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, which will meet with cinema lovers between October 2 and November 2025, 62, the “Cinema Labor Award” will be presented to Feride Çiçekoğlu, and the “Young Filmmaker Labor Award” will be presented to Cansu Baydar.
Feride Çiçekoğlu, who completed her undergraduate and graduate studies at METU Faculty of Architecture, earned her doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania as a Fulbright scholar. She was put on trial during the September 12th coup attempt due to her political views. The memories she shared with a young boy she met at Ankara Ulucanlar Prison inspired her book, “Don’t Shoot the Kite.” She learned how to write screenplays while working with director Tunç Başaran and art director Jale Başaran, who wanted to adapt the book for film. Çiçekoğlu continued her screenwriting career with Xavier Koller’s Oscar-winning 1990 Swiss film “Reise der Hoffnung – Journey of Hope,” which won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Çiçekoğlu then forged a new academic career in film. Çiçekoğlu, who became a professor in this field in 2007, has a trilogy focusing on Istanbul films through gender issues, in addition to her English publications: Vesikalı Şehir (2007), Şehir Objection (2015) and İsyankâr Şehir (2019).
Çiçekoğlu was deemed worthy of the “Best Screenplay” award at the International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival in 1989 with “Don’t Let Them Shoot the Kite” and the “Golden Orange National Film Competition Cahide Sonku Award” in 2021.
The films Kumun Tadı (2014) and Aniden (2022), for which he co-wrote the screenplays with Melisa Önel, had their world premieres in Berlin and Tokyo. Production is underway on their third co-screenplay, Pivot. Çiçekoğlu, who shares nearly forty years of screenwriting experience with younger generations with his most recent book, Bir Scenario Yazıalım (2025), continues to teach architecture, literature, psychology, and screenwriting at Istanbul Bilgi University.
Cansu Baydar, who graduated from Bahçeşehir University’s Department of Film and Television, directed the short documentary This Is Afreeka in 2014, consisting of interviews she conducted with refugees occupying a park in Berlin. She worked as a director and assistant producer on Berkun Oya’s series Bir Başkadır (2020) and the film Cici (2022). She assisted the screenwriter and director on Kaan Müjdeci’s film Iguana Tokyo (2022) and the series Hamlet (2021). Her first short film, “Almost Definitely Wrong” (2024), which she wrote and directed, had its world premiere at the Orizzonti Short Film Competition at the 81st Venice Film Festival and its North American premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. The film, which has been selected for more than 50 international festivals, has been screened in Italy, the United States, Germany, South Korea, France, Spain, Portugal, Egypt, Iraq, Kosovo, Romania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and North Macedonia. Baydar won the “National Short Film Competition Best Short Film Award” at the 61st International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival with his film “Almost Definitely Wrong,” which had its Turkish premiere in Antalya.
The film won the Best Short Film in the International Competition at the Baku International Film Festival, Best Fiction Film, Best Actor (Rahaf Armanazi), and Best Cinematographer (Barış Özbiçer) at the İzmir Short Film Festival, the Audience Award at the Landshut Short Film Festival, Best Short Film at the Akbank Short Film Festival, Best Short Film at the Accessible Film Festival, Best Short Film and Best Director at the Sinepark Short Film Festival, Best Director at the FILMAY Short Film Festival, Best Actor (Rahaf Armanazi) and Best Director at the Kaş Film Festival, and was selected as the best short film of 2024 at the SİYAD Turkish Cinema Awards.
The “Labor Awards” of the 62nd International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival will be presented at the festival’s opening ceremony.
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