NEWS CENTER- 10th London Kurdish Film Festival will be held on 13-22 April, 2018 and the festival organizers call for submissions. The festival will be dedicated to the memory of Mehmet Aksoy, British-Kurdish filmmaker, journalist and activist.

 

The London Kurdish Film Festival at its inception was the first festival of its kind and has grown to become the biggest exhibition of Kurdish films outside of Kurdistan. The festival will mark over 15 years of showcasing films from across the Kurdish diaspora, films often made under the most extreme conditions, where at times the stakes were higher and the pursuit for freedom of expression more potent. The celebrations are made particularly poignant and significant for reasons that are twofold; with the current political context as well as the tragic loss of one of the festival’s former directors.

 

The organizers of the festival call for submissions and they say;

 

“The recent developments in Kurdistan and the Middle East, and the humanitarian crisis that is ensuing makes the festival more necessary and immediate. The festival will therefore show special focus on the historic resistance against ISIS in Western Kurdistan - Rojava (North Syria) and South Kurdistan (Northern Iraq).

 

The 10th festival will be dedicated to the memory of Mehmet Aksoy, British-Kurdish filmmaker, journalist and activist. Mehmet was killed on 26th September 2017 by ISIS militants whilst bravely volunteering in the region as a news correspondent; documenting stories and collecting footage of the YPG struggle to liberate the region. As ‘Memed’s friends’ we pledge to carry forward the camera he passed on to us and honor his dedication to the pursuit of truth in great film with an unforgettable film festival. His brave legacy will reverberate in all festivals to come and through all the young storytellers it will no doubt inspire.

 

Categories for submission include Feature, Documentary and Short Films. Along with 6th Yılmaz Güney Short Film Competition, this year the festival will give a special Mehmet Aksoy Award to the best Documentary film. The submissions for all categories are open until 15th January 2018.

 

The festival will begin with the opening gala ceremony, an evening of Kurdish music, dance and food, and then the opening gala film, continuing for a further 2 days at Hackney Picturehouse, then following 5 nights the festival will be at VUE in Wood Green and Rio cinema. The festival will come back to Hackney Picture House for last 2 days and will end with closing gala film and awards ceremony.

 

London Kurdish Film Festival aims to establish a platform for young talented filmmakers and will be announcing more creative projects to support Kurdish Cinema in the near future.”

 

This year the festival encourages filmmakers to submitting their films through “Filmfreeway” (https://filmfreeway.com/). You can submit to the festival on www.lkff.co.uk