By Musa Alcan

ISTANBUL

A panel on cinema and festivals was held Thursday as part of the 6th international Bosphorus Film Festival in Istanbul.

The festival is organized with the support of the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry and General Directorate of Cinema. Anadolu Agency is its global communications partner.

The event titled "Cinema and Festivals as an Industry" in the Bosphorus Film Lab section of the festival was organized in collaboration of the Bosphorus Cinema Association and Istanbul Media Academy.

Speaking at the event, Erkan Durdu, deputy general manager of national broadcaster TRT, said festivals keep the cinema sector alive and ignoring them would harm the film sector.

"We are broadcasters of television, but cinema, as an art branch, is our main source of nutrition," Durdu stressed.

Durdu also noted that TRT is one of Turkey's pioneering institutions especially in drama and that it has extensive knowledge and experience in the field.

He said: “We realized that we are not exchanging our views with the academia even though we have so much experience. In order to increase the cooperation and move the accumulated knowledge of the academia to our own corridors and production centers, we established TRT Academy.”

The TRT Academy publishes its magazine every six months and holds conferences at universities every month, he added.

The festival, which runs through Nov. 3, is hosting 88 films from 41 countries and the winners will receive at least 400,000 Turkish liras ($71,500) in prize money. Participants will be awarded in the categories of national feature film, international feature film and short film.

Many event including private screenings, documentaries, conversations, panels, workshops and exhibitions will be available at the event just like every year.