‘’Başka Cinema Ayvalık Film Festival’’ once more presents a wide selection of creative and independent films to the audience. The festival also includes panel discussions and interviews, and hands out the Kariyo & Ababay Foundation Director of the Year Award for supporting creativity. In the 2021 festival edition, directed by Azize Tan, 44 films are shown in the sections “Turkish Cinema 2020 – 2021”, “Ghosts, Memories”, “Where From Here”, “Don’t Say It’s Impossible”, “Word of Mouth” and “Cinema for Children”. The festival is realized with the participation of directors, players, producers, cinema sector representatives and press members.22 university students from different university and cinema clubs in Izmir, Diyarbakır and Istanbul participate in the workshops together with sector professionals such as directors, producers, screenwriters and distributors. Furthermore, volunteering students contribute to the organization by working in different sections of the festival. Within the scope of the festival, writer-academic Zeynep Sayın holds a conversation on “Family, Private Property, State”, while there are the following panels entitled “Where Are We Going From Here?”, “Climate Change, Ecology and Being a Woman with Süheyla Doğan”, and “This Was the Coolest of the Future Summers” with speakers Önder Algedik, Özlem Altıparmak and Ebru Baybara Demir, moderated by Defne Koryürek. There is also a workshop held entitled “From Coincidence to Control: Filmmaking; A Crash Introduction with Ali Erdemci”.
First held in 2018, “Başka Cinema Ayvalık Film Festival” is realized this year with the contributions of the Ayvalık Municipality, Balıkesir Metropolitan Municipality, Kariyo & Ababay Vakfı, Space for Culture, Kendine Has, Bilginer – Melin Ayvalık Art Culture Education Foundation (ASKEV), Setur Marinas Ayvalık, Fatma – Mustafa Kürşat, İnci – Mehmet Vural, Eren – Sabit Tapan, Levent- Yiğit Gürçay, Goethe Institute, Ma’adra Vineyards, Penti, Ayvalık International Music Academy (AIMA), Koop, Ayvalıkzade, Atölye Delice, Cunda Gözde, Cüneyt Cebenoyan Children and Cinema Meetings, and Sabancı University Creative Technologies Atelier.