First Cut Lab Istanbul is a consultancy program designed for three feature films in editing phase from Turkey. The program is made in collaboration with the Bogazici Film Festival, as part of the Bosphorus Film Lab.
The selected teams (director/producer/editor) are offered a welcoming and challenging creative framework, where they can open up and explore new artistic perspectives for their films. They screen their rough cut in a private session, and receive expert feedbacks from three international film industry advisors, as well as tailor-made advice from Agnieszka Glinska, who will be the consultant editor, and Wim Vanacker who will act as the editorial advisor.
Consultant editors and film industry advisors will be defined according to the profiles of the films selected.
Once the workshop is over, they receive a report & a roadmap that can serve as guidance for further editing. Eventually, the ambition of First Cut Lab is to enhance the audience potential of the films.
DATES
Deadline for submission: 8. September 2022
The workshop will take place in Istanbul, during the period of the Bogazici Film Festival (21.-28. October 2022).
The core of the Lab takes place over two consecutive days for each film, preceded by a preparatory session a week before. The exact dates will be chosen in agreement with the selected teams to best answer the needs of their films.
SUBMISSIONS
All applications must include:
– complete application form and video material not less than 30 minutes long. In order to submit your application and the required material, you need to fill out the form.
Please find here below the complete guidelines and detailed info about the submission process.
Applications must be sent to: natalia.libet@
1. GENERAL GUIDELINES
Please note: the deadline for submitting a project to First Cut Lab Istanbul 2022 is September 8, 2022.
In order to submit your application and the required material, you need to complete the submission form. All application materials and subtitles should be in English.
2. SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
Submissions should include: A complete online submission form in English and video material with a minimum duration of 30 minutes and with English subtitles.
The video material submitted can be selected scenes, a first assembly, or a rough cut with a minimum duration of 30 minutes.
The video is mandatory to be available via streaming service password protected (e.g. Vimeo). No transfer services or cloud storage is accepted.
Incomplete applications will not be taken into consideration..
3. SELECTION & ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
The project should be a feature film with international market potential – minimum length of 70 minutes.
First Cut Lab has no specific fixed criteria in terms of content and each project will be considered on its own merits. The main criteria for selection are the artistic & audience potential of the film, corroborated with the specific needs identified by the organizers in each project in regards to the specificity of the First Cut Lab workshop.
Projects should be new or recent. Projects should not have been presented at any public screenings. The project can be in different stages of post-production, though it is highly recommended to be in the early editing phase. The project should have a director and/or majority or minority producer from Turkey.
4. SPECIFIC CONDITIONS
Once a project has been selected, both director and producer should be available during the days of the Lab. The presence of the editor is recommended, but not compulsory.
Finished films that participated in First Cut Lab should mention First Cut Lab and display its logo in their credits. The following sentence should be mentioned in the credit list: “This project participated in First Cut Lab Istanbul 2022” together with the First Cut Lab and Bogazici Film Festival logos.