As part of the “Happy Neighbor” Project, Istanbul Kültür University students Şirin Erensoy and Murat Sebah, along with their professor Bülent Küçükerdoğan went to Shumen, Bulgaria for a week.

There they shot their Project which was about the owner of the largest aluminium factory in the Balkan area – Fikret İnce. İnce, who has been residing in the small town of Shumen situated in northeastern Bulgaria since 2000, is also a very important investor in the Shumen area and has contributed to the economic growth of the region.

The IKÜ team was assisted by NATFA students Ana Kitanova and Veselin Apostolov, who shot their Project in Istanbul in March, as well as NATFA Screen Arts Faculty dean Lubo Halatchev.

Professor Dragan Milinkovic from Serbia held a workshop for IKU students titled “Looking at Movies”. This three day workshop included modern ways of looking at contemporary cinema activities; including everything we see on the movie screen – everything that engages our senses, emotions and minds – results from hundreds of decisions affecting the interrelation of formal cinematic elements: narrative, composition, design, cinematography, acting, editing and sound.
 
This workshop will have a part 2 taking place in November 2010.

Professor Jyri Sillart and three of his graduated students from the Baltic Film and Media School came to İstanbul Kültür University for a three day workshop with IKÜ students and assistants. The workshop consisted of discovering “the smell” of a place – various sites of Istanbul were explored in order to come up with a film scene that would somehow give its audience the spirit of that place.
 
Shooting took place in one morning (4 hours) where one student from BFM was appointed ‘advisor’ for each group. Editing took place in one night, followed by a day of screening.

  Kujtim Çashku is known not only for his films but also for the promotion of new generations of   professionals in the cinematic arts. He is the principal of the Marubi Film School, the first film university in Albania. The school is known also for fostering cultural connections between the countries of Southeast Europe. The “cultural yard” of the other countries is still an “unexplored area”, says Çashku.

In an interview with Southeast Europe: People and Culture, Albania's internationally best-known cinema personality talks about some of the main moments of his career and his engagement with the Marubi Film and Multimedia Academy.

Two students from NATFA will be spending 1 week in Istanbul, hosted by Istanbul Kültür University, where they will be filming a documentary. Ana Kitanova and Veselin Apotolov, second year students at the Academy, will be shooting Maria Kılıçlıoğlu – a sculptor of Bulgarian descent, living in Istanbul. The film will be shot at Maria’s studio and home, where the crew will consist of Kültür students. The editing of the documentary will take place in Sofia and the film will be ready for May 2010.

The program targets students and future professionals in related multi-media design disciplines: Computer Graphics and Animation , Computer Technologies in Video Production , Film Editing and Special Effects, Physical Interfaces and Interactivity in Stage Design , Immersive projection , Audio Spaciality In Media Environments , Virtual and Augmented Reality.

Dear Friends and Colleagues,
 
we are happy  to share with all of you  a moment of joy and pride :   at the recent Berlinale, for his debut  film "If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle", our graduate Florin Serban  won both a   Silver Bear - The Jury Grand Prix - and the  "Alfred Bauer" Prize, awarded in the memory of the Festival Founder "for a work of particular innovation ".

Renen Schorr, founder of the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School in Jerusalem, will be having a one day workshop on February 25, 2010 at İstanbul Kültür University. Five films from the 20 Best Films of all times DVD compilation will be selected to be screened, as a part of the School’s 20th anniversary events.

May 1st, 2010 SEECS FILM BUS TRIP START OFF!
 
5 young professors from seven countries – Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Romania, Serbia and Turkey – will embark on a journey on a bus, through the Balkan capitals to discover their neighbors’ histories and cultures. They will design a curriculum proposal on southeastern cinema for an MA degree that will be later taught at the respective universities.  Furthermore the young professors will be filming their travels that will later be edited into a documentary.