44th Istanbul International Film Festival

Turkey, April 11 - April 22 2025

Festival homepage

The jury

Dmytro Desiateryk (Ukraine), Simon Popek (Slovenia), Ayla Kanbur (Turkey)

Awarded films

Golden Tulip İnternational Competition

Lesson Learned

Motivation: “The FIPRESCI jury awards Lesson Learned for its elegant structure and powerful voice. Set in a school, the film tackles urgent social and political issues in contemporary Hungary. With emotional precision, humour, and outstanding work with child actors, director Bálint Szimler moves beyond conventional social critique, mocking cowardice, narrow-mindedness, and aggression to offer a bold and humanist reflection on sacrifice and the pursuit of freedom”.

Short Film Competition

Citizen Inmate

Motivation: “Assigned to monitor prisoners shackled at the ankles, the officer fails to recognize his own captivity. Director Hesam Eslami,  masterfully blends fiction with reality and reveals that, ironically, how authoritarian regimes imprison themselves in the very act of imprisoning others“.