Mercy to Universe film festival to kick off in November

By Aise Humeyra Bulovali, Ahmet Esad Sani, and Salih Seref

ANKARA (AA) – The Mercy to Universe International Short Film Festival will be held from Nov. 21- 27 in Istanbul.

An introductory meeting for the 7th iteration of the event was held on Friday.

The festival will be supported by Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Ministry with Anadolu Agency as its global communication partner.

The festival, which aims to introduce the teachings of Prophet Muhammad to the world, is organized by the Fidan Art and Siyer (Al-Sira) Foundations.

Speaking at the meeting, Abdulbaki Baser, chairman of the Fidan Art Foundation, said the festival is using cinema to spread the teachings of Prophet Muhammad.

Baser stated that the categories of animation, screenplay and documentary have been added to the festival in the past years.

He added that they have trained many students at the Hassan Bin Sabit Cinema Academy on script, direction, short film and cinematography.

"As Siyer Foundation, we have established a brand new foundation, named Fidan Art, with our friends in order to raise the bar for all these works and to realize new projects at the same time," he added.

Cemil Nazli, director of the festival, said this year they will not follow a set theme, but contestants can narrate any aspect of Prophet Muhammad's life.

The winners in total will receive 100,000 Turkish liras ($11,749), he said.

We also want to shortlist seven projects for a funding of 200,000 liras ($23,917), Nazli added.

Turkey's state broadcaster TRT will also extend support to the festival.

TRT Joint and External Productions Manager Faruk Guven said the festival produces valuable screenplays which get great response in Turkey and the world.

In the national category, best short film fiction will be awarded 25,000 liras ($2,937), short documentary 15,000 liras ($1,762) and short animation 10,000 liras ($1,174).

In the international category, 25,000 ($2,937) liras will be presented to the best short film, 15,000 liras ($1,762) to best short documentary, and 10,000 liras ($1,174) to best short animation.

Entries will be accepted until Oct. 31 at http://alemlererahmetfilm.com.

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