International Antalya Film Festival

International Antalya Film Festival closes in style with a glittering array of stars, including Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Harvey Keitel

The 53rd edition of International Antalya Film Festival comes to a close on Sunday 23rd of October, 2016, after eight days of extraordinary films, panels, and public events. The event, under the direction of Festival President and Mayor of Antalya Metropolitan Municipality, Menderes Türel, and Festival Director Elif Dağdeviren, this year screened over 134 films from 39 countries, including sidebars dedicated to the plight of refugees and life after military coups, and a national spotlight on contemporary Chinese cinema.

The festival’s closing ceremony will see the presentation of the prestigious Golden Orange awards for its National and International Competitions, chaired by Turkish auteur Semih Kaplanoğlu and British director Hugh Hudson, respectively. This year’s international jury comprises actresses Andie MacDowell, from the United States, and Nursel Köse, from Turkey, Dutch screen legend Rutger Hauer, Palestinian writer-director Najwa Najjar, American screenwriter Wash Westmoreland, and Sarajevo Film Festival director and producer Mirsad Purivatra.

In addition, the festival will welcome two very special guests for the evening: Emmy Award-winning actor Armand Assante, and American screen legend Harvey Keitel.

IAFF welcomes American star Armand Assante

who will perform at the festival’s closing ceremony

Assante made his screen debut in 1978, playing Sylvester Stallone’s brother in the actor’s directorial debut, the boxing drama ‘Paradise Alley’. But it was his role as Goldie Hawn’s dashingly handsome love interest in the smash hit ‘Private Benjamin’ (1980), which bought him to international stardom.

He has since carved out a career as one of the screen’s great tough guys, starring in Sidney Lumet’s ripped-from-the-headline drama 1990 ‘Q&A’ (a role which earned him a Golden Globe nomination); playing mob boss Carol D'Allesandro in Danny DeVito’s ‘Hoffa’ (1992), alongside Jack Nicholson; and stealing the screen as crime kingpin John Gotti in the 1996 TV biopic ‘Gotti’, for which he deservedly won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor. But he was also unforgettable as Sanchez, Queen Isabella's Minister of State, in Ridley Scott’s historical drama ‘1492: Conquest of Paradise’, and as the Cuban bandleader Cesar in ‘The Mambo Kings’, where he co-starred alongside Antonio Banderas.

More recently he has starred in Paul Borghese’s ‘Once Upon a Time in Brooklyn’ (2013) and lent his voice to the 2000 animated feature ‘The Road to El Dorado’. He continues to act in film and television, and has lent his support to humanitarian work in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. A noted musician, Mr Assante will also sing at our closing ceremony, performing some of the songs of his idol, Frank Sinatra.

Harvey Keitel receives a Lifetime Achievement Award

One of the screen’s most distinctive and best-loved presences, Harvey Keitel has amassed a filmography that also functions as a history of modern American cinema, working alongside filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma, Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Altman, Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino.

A native of New York City, Keitel was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Brighton Beach, before deciding at sixteen years of age to join the US Marine Corps, a move which took him to Lebanon during 1958’s Operation Blue Bat. Returning to the United States, he worked briefly as a court reporter before devoting himself to acting, studying under legendary drama coaches Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg.

He made his screen debut in 1967, in Martin Scorsese’s first feature, ‘Who’s That Knocking At My Door’, and later appeared in the classic ‘Mean Streets’ (1973), a breakthrough for both men. He continued the association in three further films: ‘Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore’ (1974), the Palme d’Or-winning ‘Taxi Driver’ (1976), and ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ (1988). He also took a lead role in ‘Blue Collar’, the 1978 directorial debut of ‘Taxi Driver’s screenwriter Paul Schrader, and the same year starred in Ridley Scott’s debut feature ‘The Duellists’.

Thereafter, his filmography is studded with unforgettable performances in great films: re-teaming with Scott for ‘Thelma and Louise’ (1991), portraying legendary gangster Mickey Cohen in Barry Levinson’s ‘Bugsy’, the same year; taking the title role in Abel Ferrera’s cult classic ‘Bad Lieutenant’ (1992), and the same year, agreeing to work with a then-little known former video store clerk-turned-director, Quentin Tarantino, as ‘Mr White’ in ‘Reservoir Dogs’, a film he also helped produce.

Keitel subsequently re-teamed with Tarantino for another Palme d’Or winner, 1994’s ‘Pulp Fiction’ – and then shared in yet another Palme d’Or triumph the following year, with Jane Campion’s ‘The Piano’. He worked with Greek auteur Theo Angelopoulos on ‘Ulysses’ Gaze’ (1995), starred alongside John Travolta and Gene Hackman in Barry Sonnenfeld’s ‘Get Shorty’ (also 1995), and the same year turned in a stunning performance for Spike Lee in the crime drama ‘Clockers’. More recently, he has worked with Wes Anderson on two critically-acclaimed films, ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ (2012) and ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ (2014).

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