Celebrating cinema’s power to inspire reflection on justice, conscience and human rights, the International Crime and Punishment Film Festival is preparing to welcome audiences for its 16th edition. Organized by the Justice and Cinema Association from November 27 to December 2, the festival will bring stories from across the globe to audiences at İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality Beyoğlu Cinema and the Kadıköy Municipality Cinematheque/Cinema House, guided by its principle of “Justice for All.” The juries that will select the winners of the festival’s International Golden Scale Film Competitions have now been announced.

The films competing for the TRY 450,000 cash prize and Golden Scale statuette in the International Golden Scale Feature Film Competition will be evaluated by a jury chaired by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, one of the leading figures of African cinema. The jury also includes Swiss festival director Margherita Cascio, director and screenwriter Tolga Karaçelik, Bulgarian producer Rossitsa Valkanova and Ukrainian producer Olena Yershova. The winner of the €30,000 Eurimages Audentia Award will be chosen by Eurimages representative Anne Christine Knoth, together with feature competition jury members Tolga Karaçelik and Olena Yershova.

The winner of the TRY 60,000 cash prize and Golden Scale statuette in the International Golden Scale Short Film Competition will be selected by a jury comprising director and producer Serpil Altın, actor Erdem Şenocak, and film critic and festival programmer Maria Giovanna Vagenas.

Feature Film Competition Jury

Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, who will receive this year’s Cinema Honorary Award at the festival, is known for films including Abouna, Daratt, Grigris and Lingui, the Sacred Bonds. He won the Special Jury Prize at the 2006 Venice Film Festival for Daratt and the Jury Prize at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival for A Screaming Man. Haroun served on the jury of the Cannes Film Festival in 2011. His latest film, Soumsoum, the Night of the Stars, received the FIPRESCI Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival and will be screened as part of this year’s festival.

Swiss festival director Margherita Cascio studied film directing in Geneva after completing her studies in philosophy. Having worked with cultural institutions and non-governmental organizations for many years, Cascio joined the Lugano Human Rights Film Festival as programme and communications coordinator in 2020 and now serves as its co-director. Since 2023, she has also been programme coordinator of Let’s Doc!, an event dedicated to documentary cinema.

Director and screenwriter Tolga Karaçelik first attracted attention with his debut feature, Toll Booth. His film Ivy premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and screened at international festivals, while his third feature, Butterflies, won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. His latest film, The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write About a Serial Killer, starring Steve Buscemi, John Magaro and Britt Lower, won the Audience Award at the Tribeca Film Festival.

One of Bulgarian cinema’s leading producers, Rossitsa Valkanova has helped bring contemporary Bulgarian filmmaking to international attention through KLAS Film, which she founded in 1995. She has worked with directors including Iglika Triffonova, Dragomir Sholev and Ralitza Petrova, and has co-produced films including Radu Jude’s Aferim! and I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians, Zeki Demirkubuz’s Life and Konstantin Bojanov’s The Shameless.

Working across Ukraine, Türkiye and Georgia, producer Olena Yershova is known for her international co-productions and work in auteur cinema. She was executive producer of Sergei Loznitsa’s My Joy, which competed at the Cannes Film Festival. Through her company TatoFilm, she has produced award-winning films including Motherland, Anatolian Leopard and Brighton 4th. Her latest production, Guria, directed by Levan Koguashvili, premiered at the Venice Film Festival.

Eurimages Audentia Award Jury

Presented since 2016 by Eurimages, the Council of Europe’s film support fund, the Audentia Award aims to recognize the achievements of women directors and increase their visibility in cinema. This year’s jury consists of director Tolga Karaçelik and producer Olena Yershova, who also serve on the Golden Scale Feature Film Competition jury, and Eurimages project manager Anne Christine Knoth.

Anne Christine Knoth is responsible for feature film projects at Eurimages and also works on implementing the fund’s strategy for gender equality, diversity and inclusion. She previously coordinated Atelier Ludwigsburg-Paris, a programme for emerging film professionals in Europe, and served as Equal Opportunities Officer at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg from 2019 to 2021.

Short Film Competition Jury

Director, producer and screenwriter Serpil Altın has received awards at national and international festivals for her short films. Her debut feature, Once Upon a Time in the Future: 2121, attracted attention as the first feature-length science fiction film directed by a woman in Türkiye and won 15 awards at international festivals. A member of the European Film Academy – EFA European Women’s Audiovisual Network EWA, Altın continues to develop projects that explore social issues through genre cinema.

Stage and screen actor Erdem Şenocak began acting while studying engineering at Istanbul Technical University. He has appeared in theatre productions such as Dangerous Games and I, Pierre Rivière, and has received numerous awards for his performances in films including The Announcement, Passed by Censor, Between Two Dawns, Burning Days, About Dry Grasses, Hesitation Wound and Unfruitful Times.

Film critic, programmer and curator Maria Giovanna Vagenas has served as a programming consultant for the Viennale since 2009. She has worked with international film festivals in Berlin, Rotterdam, Bologna and Marseille and has been a programmer for the Lugano Human Rights Film Festival since 2018. Her writing on cinema has appeared in publications including the South China Morning Post, Locarno Daily and Senses of Cinema, and she has served on juries at numerous international film festivals.

Competition Films to Be Announced in the Coming Days

The films competing for the Golden Scale awards at the 16th International Crime and Punishment Film Festival, chaired by Prof. Dr. Adem Sözüer, with Prof. Dr. Bengi Semerci as Festival Director and Alin Taşçıyan as Programme Director, will be announced in the coming days. Bringing together films from around the world that explore different facets of justice, the festival will welcome cinema audiences in Istanbul from November 27 to December 2 with screenings at İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality Beyoğlu Cinema and the Kadıköy Municipality Cinematheque/Cinema House, alongside talks and other events.