The total number of movies screened in Turkey last year was 439.178 of these were Turkish movies and 261 were foreign. The total number of moviegoers in 2018 was 68.9 million, and out of this number, 43 million chose to see Turkish movies.
The percentage of Turkish movies tickets out of the whole box office in 2018 was 63.5%, which has been the highest percentage for Turkish movies.
In terms of the percentage of domestic movie admissions, Turkey has been the leading country in Europe over the past 7 years. In 2018, Turkey was followed by France and Britain, with 37%, which were followed by Russia and Germany with 23%.
The Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism pursued a project called ‘No children left without cinema,’ in 2018 and supported the admission of almost 1 million students to a movie theater.
Out of the 10 most viewed movies screened last year, 9 were domestic and 1 was a U.S. production (Avengers). The most popular movie in 2018 was Muslum – the life story of a famous musician, Muslum Gurses, who passed away in 2013. Muslum was seen by 6.2 million people, with a total box office of 82.5 million TL.
According to statistics provided by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry has provided 430 million TL financial support to Turkish movies between 2004-2018. In the last years, the average amount of financial support has been over 55 million.
Many movies that were produced with the support of the ministry in 2018 received many awards at film festivals.
Experienced director, Nuri Bilgi Ceylan, who was previously awarded 5 times by the Cannes Film Festival, produced his last movie ‘The Wild Pear Tree’ (Ahlat Agaci) with the financial support of the ministry. The film competed once again for ‘Palme d’Or’ in 2018 and was screened at the Toronto Film Festival under the ‘Masters’ section.
‘Pigeon’ (Guvercin), directed by Banu Sivaci, received the ‘Best Youth Movie’ awarded at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival, and ‘Best Director’ award at the Sofia Film Festival.
‘Announce’ (Anons), directed by Mahmut Fazil Coskun, cometed at the ‘Orizzonti’ (Horizons) section at the Venice Film Festival and received both the jury’s ‘Special Award’ and ‘Best Mediterranean Movie’ award.
‘Nebula,’ directed by Tarik Aktas, received the ‘Best Emerging Director’ award at the Locarno Film Festival. ‘The Plane Tree’ (Cinar), directed by Mustafa Karadeniz received the ‘Best Script’ award at the Kazakhstan Shaken Aimanov Film Festival.
Other movies premiered in various festivals that received financial support from the ministry were: ‘The Pigeon Thieves’ (Guvercin Hirsizlari) by Osman Dogan at Sarajevo Film Festival; ‘Brothers’ (Kardesler) by Omur Atay at Karlovy Vary Film Festival; ‘Pure’ (Saf) by Ali Vatansever at Toronto Fikm Festival; ‘The Pillar of Salt’ (Tuzdan Kaide) by Burak Cevik at Toronto Film Festival.
*Written by Selahattin Emre Celebi
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