International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival - History

History

The cultural activities like concerts and theater plays, which started to take place in the 1950s at the historical Aspendos Amphitheatre, formed headstone of the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival today. These events held in the summer months under the honorary patronage of Dr. Avni Tolunay, found ever increasing interest of people and became traditional until the beginning of 1960s. In 1963, the festivities turned into a film festival with the initiation Dr. Avni Tolunay, who became the mayor of Antalya that year. As the logo of the film festival was chosen orange, the most important symbol of the region, along with sea, historical elements and the Venus statute. The orange becomes not only a figure within the logo but gives also the festival its name.

The 1st Golden Orange Film Festival was held in 1964. Its mission was formulated by Avni Tolunay as to promote the Turkish cinema, to motivate Turkish film producers for high quality works and to help Turkish cinema penetrate the international film platform. The Golden Orange Feature Film Award was called soon the Turkish Oscar following the enthusiasm created in the cinema world with its high performance within a short time. In 1978, the festival went international by incorporating plastic arts for the first time.

Until 1985, the Golden Orange Festival was organized by the patronage of the Municipality of Antalya. That year, the organization was taken over by the newly established Foundation for Culture, Arts and Tourism in Antalya (Antalya Kültür Sanat Turizm Vakfı, AKSAV). From 1985 until 1988, the incorporation of an international music festival called “Akdeniz Akdeniz” (“Mediterranean Mediterranean”) added another dimension to the festival. In the years 1989 to 1994, the municipality, tourism companies and the chamber of commerce in Antalya performed the organization of the Golden Orange Film Festival jointly. Finally, the festival became institutional with the establishment of the Foundation of Golden Orange Culture and Arts Foundation. The institution serves under the name Antalya Culture and Arts Foundation (Antalya Kültür Sanat Vakfı) since September 2002.

From 2005 to 2008 it was jointly organized with Turkish Foundation of Cinema and Audio-visual Culture (TURSAK) and was accompanied by the International Eurasia Film Festival.