Celebrating its 25th edition, Filmekimi brings award-winning productions from international film festivals and some of the year’s most anticipated films to audiences in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Mersin.
Autumn is here, and with it come the rituals that make the season special. Filmekimi is undoubtedly one of them. Organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) with the sponsorship of Paribu, Filmekimi celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. Marking a quarter of a century, the festival once again presents films that have screened and won awards at major international festivals, from Cannes to Venice, alongside some of the year’s most eagerly awaited releases.
Beginning in Istanbul from 9 to 18 October, Filmekimi will continue in Ankara from 15 to 18 October, before heading to Izmir and, for the first time, Mersin, from 22 to 25 October. The programme features new films from acclaimed directors including Pedro Almodóvar, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Lee Chang-dong and Werner Herzog, while also shining a spotlight on emerging filmmakers. With tickets now available through Passo, we take a closer look at some of the most intriguing titles in this year’s selection. Enjoy the screenings!
Contents
AN UNEXPECTED BOND AMID THE HORRORS OF WAR
Les Braves
Lukas Dhont | Belgium, France, Netherlands
Belgian director Lukas Dhont, who won the Caméra d’Or for Best First Feature at Cannes with Girl and the Grand Prix with Close, turns his attention to the First World War. His latest film, Coward, earned its two leading actors, Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne, a joint Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival. It tells the story of an unexpected connection formed in the midst of war.
The story follows Pierre, a young Belgian soldier newly sent to the front. Eager to prove himself on the battlefield, he has little idea of the horrors awaiting him. Behind the front lines, he meets Francis, and the two quickly form a powerful bond. Hoping to escape the gloom of war, if only briefly, and lift the spirits of their fellow soldiers, they decide to put on a performance together. Yet all of this unfolds under the shadow of a war that seems to have no end.
Dhont has said that the film was inspired by a photograph of soldiers dancing in costumes made from ammunition and sandbags. For audiences planning to see the film, it is worth noting that these improvised performances become a form of resistance against both the roles imposed by the military and the brutality of the conflict.
REED VAN DYK ON FORGIVENESS AND REGRET
Atonement
Reed Van Dyk | USA
When a war ends, does the guilt it leaves behind end with it? Inspired by true events, Reed Van Dyk’s feature debut, Atonement, explores precisely this question.
During the invasion of Iraq, a split-second decision by an American soldier devastates an Iraqi family. Years later, struggling to confront his past actions, the soldier attempts to reconnect with the family whose lives he destroyed. But is remorse enough to atone for a crime? More importantly, is forgiveness always possible? Drawing on an article published in The New Yorker, Van Dyk approaches the devastation of war not so much through what happens on the battlefield, but through the burdens people carry for years afterwards.
Following its world premiere in the Directors’ Fortnight section at Cannes, the film was also selected for the Toronto International Film Festival. One of its interesting features is that it was shot on 16 mm film. Explaining the decision, Van Dyk says that, compared with 35 mm, the format offered an opportunity to challenge the conventional visual representation of the Middle East. War films set in the region often have a tendency to drain the landscape of colour. Drawing on his time in Baghdad and his research, the director wanted instead to emphasise the richness of its colours. For him, light and colour possess an almost spiritual dimension, suggesting that life continues to call the characters back even after tragedy has displaced them.
THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF TWO SISTERS WHO SAY “WE ARE ONE”
Bucking Fastard
Werner Herzog | USA
Werner Herzog, one of the most distinctive voices of New German Cinema, returns to Filmekimi with his first new film in seven years. The 84-year-old director has dedicated Bucking Fastard to David Lynch, and its cast is impressive: Kate Mara, Rooney Mara, Orlando Bloom and Domhnall Gleeson.
Real-life sisters Rooney and Kate Mara appear together on screen for the first time, playing Jean and Joan, two sisters who are almost never apart. And they really do mean never. They hold a teacup saucer together, walk side by side, speak simultaneously, think alike and even share the same dreams. Naturally, at some point they also fall in love with the same man, played by Orlando Bloom. Their extraordinary story is inspired by the real lives of twins Freda and Greta Chaplin.
The narrative unfolds through the sisters’ relationships with those around them, legal proceedings, media coverage and the testimonies of friends and enemies, gradually becoming stranger and more unsettling. For Herzog, who has always enjoyed exploring the boundary between reality and imagination, this is familiar territory. Set against Ireland’s magnificent landscapes, Bucking Fastard competed for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, where it had its world premiere.
CLAIRE’S JOURNEY TOWARDS HER 250TH BIRTHDAY
The End of It
Maria Martínez Bayona | UK, Spain, Norway
If we had the chance to live forever, would we really want to? Catalan director Maria Martínez Bayona’s debut feature, The End of It, explores this question through a blend of science fiction, family drama and dark comedy.
The story takes place in the near future, when ageing can be treated and death is no longer inevitable. Claire, a former artist approaching her 250th birthday, has decided she is tired of living. She wants to die. Her family, however, finds her decision almost impossible to accept. Her husband Diego (Gael García Bernal), her 180-year-old daughter Martha (Noomi Rapace) and her android personal assistant Sarah (Beanie Feldstein) all respond differently. Some are angry, others try to understand, while some attempt to change her mind. How much control should a person have over their own life? And what if wanting our loved ones to remain with us forever is, in itself, a selfish desire?
With moments of absurd humour, the film asks whether immortality might be humanity’s greatest gift or simply another predicament. Starring Rebecca Hall, one of the most compelling actresses of recent years, as Claire, The End of It premiered in the Cannes Première section of the Cannes Film Festival.
FARHADI ON IMAGINATION AND REALITY
Histoires Parallèles
Asghar Farhadi | France
Acclaimed Iranian director Asghar Farhadi brings together some of French cinema’s biggest stars in his latest film. One of his inspirations was the sixth episode of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Dekalog, later expanded into the feature film A Short Film About Love.
At the centre of the story is Sylvie, a writer searching for the subject of her next novel. She begins secretly observing the lives of her neighbours and recruits a young man named Adam to help her. What initially seems like a simple attempt to gather material for a story gradually draws her into a web of complications of her own making. The stories she constructs about other people’s lives begin to overtake reality itself.
Farhadi’s own words offer a revealing clue to his intentions: “There is no such thing as reality, only assumptions.” According to the director, the same event can represent a different reality for everyone involved. Our imagination fills the gaps left by memory, continually reconstructing what we consider to be true.
Starring Isabelle Huppert as Sylvie, the film had its world premiere in the main competition at Cannes. Audiences can also see Huppert in Ni Vue Ni Connue, another title in this year’s Filmekimi programme.
A STORY NEAR THE TURKISH BORDER: BULGARIA’S OSCAR CONTENDER
Das Geträumte Abenteuer
Valeska Grisebach | Germany, France, Austria, Bulgaria
German director Valeska Grisebach, who won the Golden Tulip at the Istanbul Film Festival in 2018 with Western, returns with her fourth feature. Once again, she begins with seemingly ordinary details of everyday life, gradually building a story of mounting tension.
This time, the setting is Svilengrad, a Bulgarian town near the Turkish border. Veska returns to her hometown after many years to supervise an archaeological excavation, only to encounter her former boyfriend, Said. His car has been stolen from outside his hotel. Wanting to help, Veska introduces him to a businessman nicknamed Crow, who has connections to suspicious activities in the area. But when Said suddenly disappears, Veska finds herself caught up in an adventure she never anticipated. Beneath the town’s apparently peaceful surface lies a world of organised crime, conflicting interests and corrupt power structures.
Grisebach combines the realism she achieves by working with non-professional actors with an increasingly complex crime story. At the same time, she examines male-dominated power structures, violence and the position of women within them. Das Geträumte Abenteuer won the Jury Prize at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival and was selected as Bulgaria’s Oscar submission.
A DIFFERENT TAKE ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: WAITITI’S HEARTWARMING STORY
Klara and the Sun
Taika Waititi | USA, UK, New Zealand
Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2021 novel Klara and the Sun has been adapted for the screen by Taika Waititi. Starring Jenna Ortega, familiar to audiences from the series Wednesday, the film explores the place of artificial intelligence in our lives through an unusually emotional story.
Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, designed to ease human loneliness. She spends her days in a shop selling androids like herself, observing people and the world through the display window. Her only wish is to find a home and become someone’s companion. Her life changes when she is purchased by the mother of Josie (Mia Tharia), a young girl suffering from an illness. Josie needs a friend just as much as Klara does. The two quickly grow close, discovering each other’s worlds, while the fragile relationships within a family marked by a devastating loss begin to emerge.
Can an artificial intelligence experience emotions we consider uniquely human, such as love, loyalty and self-sacrifice? One of the most fascinating aspects of Ishiguro’s novel is its examination of human nature through the eyes of an artificial being trying to understand it. This perspective also lies at the heart of the film, making it particularly timely at a moment when we are constantly discussing how deeply artificial intelligence is entering our lives.
Also featuring Amy Adams, Natasha Lyonne and Steve Buscemi, Klara and the Sun arrives at Filmekimi ahead of its screenings in the United States.
LÉA SEYDOUX DELIVERS AN ACCLAIMED PERFORMANCE
Gentle Monster
Marie Kreutzer | Austria, Germany, France
How much do we really know about the person we live with, the person we believe we know better than anyone else? Austrian director Marie Kreutzer places this unsettling question at the centre of Gentle Monster.
The life of celebrated pianist Lucy (Léa Seydoux) is turned upside down one morning when the police raid her home. Her husband is taken into custody, while computers and documents are seized. The accusation against him is child abuse. As Lucy struggles to recover from the initial shock, she must confront anger, shame, helplessness and betrayal. She also has a son to protect. Even the possibility that her husband might be guilty is unbearable. Yet she may be forced to choose between her trust in the man she loves and her instinct to protect her child.
In her 2022 film Corsage, Kreutzer explored the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, a woman trapped by rigid social conventions. This time, she focuses on a woman confronting a very different kind of pressure. Exploring the limits of love, loyalty and silence, the film portrays Lucy’s emotional devastation without offering easy answers. Shot on both 16 mm and 35 mm film, Gentle Monster competed for the Palme d’Or at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, where it had its world premiere. Léa Seydoux’s performance has been among its most widely praised elements.
A CRITIQUE OF SOCIETY’S ANGER TOWARDS WOMEN
Kvinde Ukendt
May el-Toukhy | Denmark, Sweden, Latvia
Inspired by true events, Kvinde Ukendt, directed by Egyptian-Danish filmmaker May el-Toukhy, has a particularly intriguing premise. The Second World War is over, and Denmark has been liberated from Nazi occupation. But the end of the war does not mean the same thing for everyone. While the country celebrates its freedom, women who had relationships with German soldiers are being identified, publicly humiliated and punished. Against this turbulent backdrop, Kvinde Ukendt tells the story of Marie, a young woman attempting to build a new life.
Working as a nanny and housekeeper in the Copenhagen home of a wealthy older widower, Marie is preparing to marry her employer. The marriage promises both social security and the future she desires. But Marie has a secret she desperately wants to keep hidden: during the war, she had a relationship with a Nazi soldier. As the country confronts its past, the revelation of her secret could jeopardise not only her marriage plans but her entire life.
In examining the contradiction between the joy of liberation and the anger directed at women, el-Toukhy also questions the sense of justice underpinning the new postwar order. How does the administration of justice change when women are at the centre of the story? It is worth considering the film from that perspective. Kvinde Ukendt won the Golden Lion at the 2026 Venice Film Festival, while lead actress Mathilde Arcel received the Best Actress Award. The film was also selected as Denmark’s submission for Best International Feature Film at the 2027 Academy Awards.
MUNGIU’S FJORD IS ROMANIA’S OSCAR CONTENDER
Fjord
Cristian Mungiu | Romania
Nearly twenty years after winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes with 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days in 2007, Romanian director Cristian Mungiu returned to claim the same prize with Fjord. This time, he turns his camera towards Norway. Inspired by true events, the film is a powerful family drama in which conflicting cultures and values gradually escalate into a custody battle.
Following a death in the family, a Romanian-Norwegian couple moves with their children to a small town surrounded by Norway’s fjords. Deeply religious, conservative and committed to traditional values, they struggle to adapt to a community whose outlook on life differs considerably from their own. But when one of their teenage daughters arrives at school with bruises on her body, everything changes. Child protection services and the police become involved, placing the couple’s parenting, beliefs and family relationships under scrutiny. When the case goes to court, the family faces the possibility of losing custody of their children.
What interests Mungiu is not simply what happens to one family, but how two fundamentally opposing worldviews can construct entirely different realities around the same event. The clash between a family committed to traditional values and the institutions of a progressive society raises questions to which there are no easy answers. Sound familiar? As he explores the tension between conservatism and progressivism, Mungiu draws attention to radicalisation, prejudice and the tendency to impose one’s beliefs on others, tendencies that can emerge on both sides. It is also worth noting that, following its festival screenings, the film received both praise and criticism from people with differing political views, becoming part of the very polarisation it depicts.
Set largely within a handful of locations, including the family home, a school and a courthouse, Fjord derives its tension less from loud confrontations than from what its characters say to one another, and sometimes what they leave unsaid. Starring Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice) and Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value), who previously appeared together in A Different Man, the film won not only the Palme d’Or at Cannes but also the François Chalais Prize, the Citizenship Prize, the Ecumenical Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI Prize. Fjord was also selected as Romania’s Oscar submission.
ALMODÓVAR’S FILM WITHIN A FILM
Amarga Navidad
Pedro Almodóvar | Spain
Pedro Almodóvar, a familiar favourite at Filmekimi, returns with another story in which emotions, memories and creativity intertwine. This time, however, he also turns the camera towards himself. Described by the Spanish director with the words “I’ve never been so cruel to myself”, Amarga Navidad unfolds through two stories set in different periods, reflecting one another and gradually becoming intertwined.
The first takes place in Madrid during Christmas 2004. Elsa (Bárbara Lennie), a commercial director preparing to make her third feature film, is going through a difficult period in her career. Once a favourite of the critics, she is no longer enjoying the same success, while severe migraines are making her life increasingly difficult. The condition, inherited from her family and triggered even by storms or flights, eventually lands her in hospital. As it happens, the story of the new film she is working on is also set in the same hospital. Meanwhile, the death of her friend Natalie’s (Milena Smit) son in a traffic accident two years earlier forms an important part of the narrative’s emotional background.
Amid all this turmoil, Elsa’s greatest source of support is her boyfriend Bonifacio (Patrick Criado), who works as a firefighter during the day and a stripper at night. His love for Elsa is perhaps the one constant in her life. But just as we settle into Elsa’s world, Almodóvar changes the direction of the story. In 2026, we discover that Elsa is, in fact, a fictional character. Her creator is Raúl (Leonardo Sbaraglia), a cult film director approaching the end of his career. Bearing a physical resemblance to Almodóvar himself, Raúl draws on his own past, the people around him and his personal experiences as he writes Elsa’s story. As the 22-year distance between the two narratives gradually narrows, changes in Raúl’s life begin to find their counterparts in Elsa’s world.
With Amarga Navidad, Almodóvar returns to one of cinema’s favourite devices: the film within a film. But this time, the story is about more than the blurring of boundaries between reality and fiction. It also explores how much of their own lives artists pour into their work, what it means to draw inspiration from the suffering of others, and how creativity can sometimes become an act of ruthless self-examination. This questioning of his own cinema, and perhaps of himself, makes the film somewhat more personal than a conventional Almodóvar melodrama. Eagerly anticipated by the director’s admirers, Amarga Navidad competed for the Palme d’Or at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, where it had its world premiere.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT FILMEKİMİ 2026
- Istanbul: Filmekimi screenings will take place from 9 to 18 October at Atlas 1948, City’s CineWAM Nişantaşı, Kadıköy Sineması and Paribu Art.
- Other cities: The festival will also visit Ankara from 15 to 18 October, with screenings in two auditoriums at Büyülü Fener Kızılay Sineması. From 22 to 25 October, it will continue at Paribu Cineverse MaviBahçe in Izmir and, for the first time, at Paribu Cineverse Forum Mersin.
- Festival campaign: Created by Muhabbet Agency, this year’s Filmekimi visuals feature İKSV employees. The promotional film depicts a crowd carrying playful placards filled with cinematic wordplay, including slogans inspired by the names of Almodóvar, Araki and Lee Chang-dong.
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