The festival takes its name from Göbeklitepe, one of the world’s most important archaeological discoveries, located in Şanlıurfa province. Göbeklitepe International Film Festival is the first international film festival to be organized in Şanlıurfa. In 2018, a group of filmmakers came together and took the first steps by establishing the Göbeklitepe Promotion, Culture, Art, Education, Research and Tourism Association, and the project has taken its current form with the contributions of national and international cinema lovers
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The Göbeklitepe International Film Festival, which accepted only national and international short films in its first year, plans to accept feature film projects in the coming years. In the first year, the “Klaus Schmidt Audience Award” was given on behalf of Klaus Schmidt, who made significant contributions to the discovery of Göbeklitepe.
In the second year, in addition to the national and international film categories, an archaeology-themed documentary category was added and the “Klaus Schmidt Documentary Award” was given to the documentaries competing in this category.
Our aim is to take its place as “Göbeklitepe International Film Festival” among the major festivals organized in our country and in the world. After the festival, the festival aims to introduce children to cinema by screening the finalist and award-winning films in schools throughout the year with the awareness of social responsibility. The festival, which has received great interest and support in the city in its first year, plans to progress by increasing its stakeholders in the following years.