III International Gordion Archaeofilm Festival Opens in Ankara
The III International Gordion Archaeofilm Festival, bringing archaeology, cultural heritage and cinema together under one roof, has opened in Ankara. On the first day of the festival, which received 828 film submissions from 108 countries, film screenings were accompanied by the “Ankara in Time” panel, the “Gordion Motifs” Felt Exhibition and the “USk Ankara Gordion Sketches” Exhibition.
Organized for the third time this year by the Gordion Foundation, the III International Gordion Archaeofilm Festival met cinema audiences in Ankara with a packed program.
Organized with the support of the General Directorate of Cinema of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Ankara Development Agency of the Ministry of Industry and Technology, and in cooperation with Ankara Metropolitan Municipality and Polatlı Municipality, the festival brought archaeology and cultural heritage together with the narrative power of cinema while also hosting a range of events extending from Ankara’s urban memory to traditional arts.
A total of 828 films from 108 countries were submitted to the festival this year. Following months of preliminary evaluation, the selected films began to meet audiences in different categories.
More than simply the opening of a film festival, the first day became a comprehensive cultural gathering where cinema, urban memory, archaeology and traditional arts came together.
A Journey into Ankara’s Memory with “Ankara in Time”
One of the major events on the first day was the “Ankara in Time” Panel.
The panel approached Ankara not only as the capital of the Republic of Türkiye, but also as a major city of culture and memory bearing the traces of different eras.
The city’s transformation from past to present was discussed through Ankara’s museums, cinemas, musical culture, artistic life and places that have left their mark on the city’s collective memory.
Discussions ranging from places that were once meeting points for Ankara residents to the city’s cultural and artistic life, and from cinemas to museums, took the audience on a journey through Ankara’s recent past.
The panel also established the intellectual framework for “Ankara in Time,” one of the festival’s special sections this year. It emphasized the importance of reconsidering Ankara’s past not only through historical documents, but also through cinema, personal memory, art and urban culture.
Gordion’s Millennia-Old Motifs Meet Felt
Traditional arts accompanied cinema on the festival’s first day.
The “Gordion Motifs” Felt Exhibition, prepared by master felt artists Canay Kilit and Oğuz Koç, was presented to art lovers as part of the festival.
The exhibition featured works inspired by the millennia-old heritage of Gordion and Phrygian culture.
Bringing felt—one of Anatolia’s oldest handicrafts—together with Gordion’s cultural heritage, the works enabled motifs encountered in archaeological artifacts and Phrygian art to be reinterpreted through contemporary art.
In this way, Gordion’s visual memory, carried from the past into the present, reached festival audiences not only through archaeological artifacts but also through a living traditional art form.
The works of Canay Kilit and Oğuz Koç became an important example of the festival’s approach to communicating archaeological heritage not only through cinema but also through different artistic disciplines.
Gordion Enters the Artists’ Sketchbooks
Another exhibition on the festival’s opening day was “USk Ankara Gordion Sketches,” featuring works by Urban Sketchers Ankara (USk Ankara) artists.
During their work at Gordion, USk Ankara artists observed the archaeological site and its surrounding historical and cultural fabric, translating what they saw into drawings in their own individual styles.
The resulting works were brought together and presented to visitors as part of the festival.
Unlike photography or moving images, urban sketching records a place at that very moment through the artist’s own lines; through these sketches, Gordion was presented from the perspectives of different artists. The exhibition demonstrated that a UNESCO World Heritage Site can be documented not only through archaeological and scientific studies, but also through artists’ personal observations.
