Stone and Feather (Taş ve Tüy), the first feature by the Turkish director Ragıp Türk, won best film in the national competition at the 63rd International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, and left the closing ceremony with six awards in all. Yeşim Ustaoğlu was named best director for What Remains (Artakalan), which took four prizes. In the international competition, the Georgian director George Ovashvili’s The Moon Is a Father of Mine won best film, and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur received the jury’s special award. The ceremony at the Cam Piramit fair and congress centre closed the festival, which ran from 24 to 31 October and is hosted by Antalya Metropolitan Municipality.
Key facts
- National best film: Stone and Feather (Ragıp Türk), which carries ₺5m (about $100,100) under the festival’s prize terms. It also won best screenplay, a share of best editing, the Cahide Sonku award for Melda Tuzluca, the Film-Yön best director award and the Sungu Çapan critics’ prize
- National best director: Yeşim Ustaoğlu, What Remains, which also won best actress (Öykü Karayel), best cinematography (Kiril Prodanov) and best art direction
- International best film: The Moon Is a Father of Mine (George Ovashvili); jury special award to Minotaur (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
- Film Forum, the festival’s industry platform, gave ₺1.45m (about $29,000) to projects from 269 applications
The Golden Orange, held this year for the 63rd time, runs a national competition for new Turkish features alongside its international one. This year’s results follow the autumn run of European festival awards that included Seminci in Valladolid and Ji.hlava, both decided on 31 October.
A mother, a care home and a fake job
Stone and Feather is an 83-minute Turkish production that screened in the national competition. According to the festival’s synopsis, Nazire comes out of prison to find that she can’t reclaim her son, Uğur, from a state care home without a steady job and a proper home, and that the institution is thinking of placing him with a wealthy family. With help from a friend who deals in scrap, she sets up a fake home and a fake job to fool the inspectors, until something goes badly wrong on the day of the inspection.
The jury, according to Evrensel, cited the film’s success in showing the grip of poverty on the city’s outskirts together with the inner and outer conflicts carried by gender identity. Türk, who was born in Sivas in 1983 and whose short films include A Man Called Harun (2016) and Tor (2019), also wrote the script.
Collecting the main award, Türk said he had moved to Istanbul in 2003 hoping to be a musician, and studied cinema and television at Istanbul University with no plan to make films. Anadolu Agency quoted him as saying that he later found work on a film set by chance, watched its director closely and decided there to become one himself. That director was Ustaoğlu, whom he thanked from the stage. Türk dedicated the award to his mother, who inspired the character of Nazire, Türkiye Turizm reported.
Ustaoğlu, Karahan and the acting prizes
Ustaoğlu’s What Remains, a 130-minute co-production with Bulgaria, France and Luxembourg, won best director, worth ₺500,000 (about $10,000), and Öykü Karayel won best actress for her role in it. Its cinematographer Kiril Prodanov and art directors Osman Özcan and Görkem Canbolat also won. Mehmet Günsür and Mert Fırat shared best actor for Hüseyin Karabey’s Death of Truth (Hakikatin Ölümü).
Büşra Bülbül’s About the Mother (Bir Anne Hakkında) took the Behlül Dal award for best first film, and its 12-year-old actor Duygu Köse won best supporting actress. İlhan Şen and Erol Babaoğlu shared best supporting actor for Ferit Karahan’s Djinn Wedding (Cinlerin Düğünü). Emir Ziyalar’s Ancient Blue (Kadim Mavi) received the Dr Avni Tolunay jury special award, best music for Can Kuman and a share of the editing prize.
The international competition
Ovashvili’s The Moon Is a Father of Mine, a Georgian-language film co-produced by Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Germany, Luxembourg and Türkiye, won the international best film award, worth ₺450,000 (about $9,000). Lorenzo Ferro and Lucas Vignale won best director for the Argentine The River Train. Magdalena Laubisch was named best actress for Jacqueline Jansen’s German drama Six Weeks On, and the best actor award was shared by Mahendra Perera, Shyam Fernando, Randika Gunathilaka and Priyantha Sirikumara for Lalith Rathnayake’s Sri Lankan Riverstone.
Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur, a Russian-language co-production of France, Germany and Latvia, took the jury’s special award, and Yukiko Sode’s Japanese All the Lovers in the Night received a special mention. The critics’ jury chose Shahram Mokri’s Black Rabbit White Rabbit (Tajikistan, UAE).
Film Forum projects
The festival’s Film Forum handed out its project awards on 27 October, with ₺450,000 (about $9,000) for Atıl İnaç’s Yağmur, the feature fiction pitching winner, and ₺250,000 (about $5,000) each for four other projects, listed below. Lira conversions use European Central Bank rates of 30 October: ₺55.8015 and $1.1172 to the euro, or about ₺49.95 to the dollar.
Full list of winners
National feature competition
- Best film (₺5m): Stone and Feather (Ragıp Türk)
- Best director: Yeşim Ustaoğlu, What Remains
- Dr Avni Tolunay jury special award: Ancient Blue (Emir Ziyalar)
- Best screenplay: Ragıp Türk, Stone and Feather
- Best actress: Öykü Karayel, What Remains
- Best actor (shared): Mehmet Günsür and Mert Fırat, Death of Truth
- Best supporting actress: Duygu Köse, About the Mother
- Best supporting actor (shared): İlhan Şen and Erol Babaoğlu, Djinn Wedding
- Best cinematography: Kiril Prodanov, What Remains
- Best editing (shared): Naim Kanat, Stone and Feather; Emir Ziyalar and Jerome Pesnel, Ancient Blue
- Best music: Can Kuman, Ancient Blue
- Best art direction: Osman Özcan and Görkem Canbolat, What Remains
- Cahide Sonku award: Melda Tuzluca, Stone and Feather
- Behlül Dal best first film: About the Mother (Büşra Bülbül)
- Film-Yön best director: Ragıp Türk, Stone and Feather
- Sungu Çapan critics’ award, best Turkish film: Stone and Feather
International feature competition
- Best film (₺450,000): The Moon Is a Father of Mine (George Ovashvili)
- Best director: Lorenzo Ferro and Lucas Vignale, The River Train
- Best actress: Magdalena Laubisch, Six Weeks On
- Best actor (shared): Mahendra Perera, Shyam Fernando, Randika Gunathilaka and Priyantha Sirikumara, Riverstone
- Jury special award: Minotaur (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
- Special mention: All the Lovers in the Night (Yukiko Sode)
- Sungu Çapan critics’ award, best foreign film: Black Rabbit White Rabbit (Shahram Mokri)
Documentary and short film
- Best documentary: The Conscript (Mükellef) (Arda Sarıgün)
- Documentary jury special award: Ash and Salt (Kül ve Tuz) (Çağatay Yurt)
- Best short film: She’s Smarter Than All of Us (Kısa Akıl) (Soner Alan)
- Short film jury special award: The Kindergarten (Anaokulu) (Melis Balcı)
- Short Film Directors Association best director (first edition): Sis Gürdal, Porkatal
- Film schools student competition, best film: Dostlar Sağolsun (Orhan Kerem Kartal)
- Film schools student competition, jury special award: Happy Earth Day (Dünya Günü Kutlu Olsun) (Selin Toprak)
Film Forum
- Feature fiction pitching (₺450,000): Yağmur (Atıl İnaç, prod. Derya Tarım)
- First feature pitching (₺250,000): Tanrının Yükü (Kader Kaya)
- Sümer Tilmaç Antalya script fund (₺250,000): Düş Kapanı (İffet Eren Danışman Boz, prod. Eyüp Boz)
- Fiction work in progress (₺250,000): İskeletin Türküsü (Murat Uğurlu, prod. Ilgım Coşar)
- Documentary work in progress (₺250,000): İsmigül (Yağmur Telli Yücel, prod. Şule Barman)
- Green production award: Cennetin Çiçekleri (Metin Kuru)
- Climate-sensitive story award: Sisler Krallığı (Aslı Akdağ)
Our reading
The national jury split its main honours between a debut and the director who inspired it: Stone and Feather took six prizes and What Remains four. Ovashvili’s win, with Türkiye among the co-producers, came a day after Georgia’s Guria took best film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards.
Sources
- Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, 63rd edition prize terms (PDF)
- Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival film page: Taş ve Tüy (Stone and Feather)
- Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, Türk sinemasının yeni filmleri Film Forum desteğiyle yola çıktı (Film Forum awards)
- Anadolu Agency via EfeNews, 63. Uluslararası Antalya Altın Portakal Film Festivali’nde ödüller sahiplerini buldu (1 November 2026)
- Evrensel, 63. Altın Portakal’da ödüller sahiplerini buldu (full winners list)
- Türkiye Turizm, Altın Portakal’da “Taş ve Tüy”e altı ödül (1 November 2026)
- Türkiye Today, Antalya Golden Orange awards honor Turkish and global cinema (1 November 2026)