Media Materials
Approved language, facts and brand assets for journalists, partners and programme notes. Please use the wording below verbatim rather than paraphrasing.
For audiences seeking cinema beyond familiar borders, TLFF is the leading U.S. festival dedicated to cinema in Turkic languages — where a film becomes a journey of cultural discovery.
Use in interviews, grant applications and partner materials. Not intended as headline copy.
ATAA and its national network, why the Assembly founded a film festival, host cities and member associations, sponsorship and institutional partnerships.
The festival's founding vision and artistic direction, its national structure, the selection and curatorial framework, the idea of building a film festival around a language family, contemporary and emerging voices from across the Turkic world, and individual films and filmmakers in the programme.
The New York opening weekend and its operation at Türk Evi, the founding host city, local partnerships and audience programmes in New York.
The Discovery programme, filmmaker conversations and webinars, work with schools and universities, language and heritage resources.
Contributing to the curatorial development of the New York Opening Program, with a focus on programme flow and audience experience, within TLFF’s broader artistic framework.
Turkish coffee as living heritage, the Turkish Coffee Day programme, cultural diplomacy and community partnerships.
The Turkic Languages & Heritage Film Festival (TLFF), publicly presented as the Turkic Languages Film Festival, is a U.S.-based festival presenting cinema that begins with a language family — and the cultures, histories and communities around it. TLFF is a program of the ATAA Arts Committee.
TLFF presents cinema from the Turkic-speaking world — not as a single culture, but as many, each with its own history on screen. Alongside screenings in New York, Washington, DC and partner cities across the United States, the festival programmes filmmaker conversations and open learning sessions that give audiences the context to read the films. TLFF is a program of the Arts Committee of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA).
A nine-bladed camera aperture — the iris of a lens seen head on. Vector and raster, in gold, mono navy and mono white.
The Assembly of Turkish American Associations, TLFF's presenting organization. Use only in reference to ATAA or its programs.
The Turkish Women's League of America, a founding partner of TLFF's New York program.
TLFF's Turkish Coffee Hospitality Partner. Use only in reference to the Foundation or the Turkish Coffee Day programme.
Cinema made in the Turkic languages reaches American audiences rarely, and almost never as a body of work. Individual films travel to individual festivals; the shared linguistic and cultural ground beneath them stays invisible. TLFF was founded to make that ground visible — to present these cinemas together, in one programme, over one season.
The festival is a program of the Arts Committee of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA), a national network of member associations. That structure is deliberate: rather than a single venue in a single city, TLFF runs through local associations, so a screening in Sacramento or Ohio is hosted by the community that lives there.
The inaugural 2026–2027 season opens in New York in December 2026 and closes in Washington, DC in April 2027, with a 19-week national season in between. The festival is bilingual in spirit: films are subtitled in English, and public programmes are designed for audiences who have no prior connection to these languages.
ATAA launches the first U.S. film festival dedicated to cinema in the Turkic languages
The Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA) has announced the founding of the Turkic Languages & Heritage Film Festival (TLFF), the first festival in the United States dedicated to cinema made in the Turkic languages. The inaugural season opens in New York on December 4–5, 2026, at Türk Evi (Turkish House), 821 United Nations Plaza, and closes in Washington, DC, on April 30–May 1, 2027.
Between the two weekends, a 21-week national season carries screenings, filmmaker conversations and public learning sessions to member associations across the country. Public screenings are free; RSVP is required.
“For close to half a century, ATAA has been the common roof of Turkish American associations across the United States, and today it stewards a connected community network in every region of the country. That network is the most durable structure through which cultural representation has been built here — and this festival is founded upon it. A screening in Sacramento or Ohio is hosted by the association that has been working in that city for decades. What sustains a cultural institution is not a single auditorium but the community behind it, and that is precisely what ATAA brings to this festival.”
“Language carries memory, place and ways of seeing — and cinema gives them form. With TLFF, we are bringing the distinct cinematic voices of the Turkic world into a shared cultural space in the United States — honoring the stories and languages they carry while making room for contemporary perspectives, emerging filmmakers and new forms of cinematic expression. We want the festival to be a place where heritage is not only remembered, but continually reimagined by the generations shaping what comes next.”
“New York is the festival’s founding city, and Türk Evi is the right address for that beginning. Opening a film festival in a building across from the United Nations, where cultural representation is spoken of in institutional language, is not incidental for us. Audiences in this city read a subtitle as an invitation rather than an obstacle; our task is to make that invitation properly.”
The programme centres on cinema in the Turkic languages, and its curatorial framework also welcomes exceptional works from historically and culturally connected geographies where the subject matter engages with the languages, heritage, memory or historical experience of the Turkic world. Films are presented with English subtitles.
Alongside the screenings, the festival runs Discovery — a year-round educational programme of filmmaker conversations, language and regional resources and an open archive, led by Ebru Milci, Ph.D., TLFF Education Director.
“A film ends on the evening it is screened; a cultural programme does not. Discovery builds the context an audience needs in order to read a film — which language is being spoken, who carries that language, under what conditions cinema is made in that region. We keep the filmmaker conversations, the language and regional resources and the archive open all year, because what really lasts from a festival is the knowledge that remains after the auditorium empties.”
Open submissions for the inaugural season are received through FilmFreeway. Selection results are announced to filmmakers on November 15, 2026, and the complete Official Selection is published before the New York opening.
Turkic Languages & Heritage Film Festival · A program of the ATAA Arts Committee
ATAA, Türk dillerinde sinemaya adanmış ilk ABD film festivalini kuruyor
Amerikan Türk Dernekleri Asamblesi (ATAA), Türk dillerinde üretilen sinemaya adanmış ilk Amerika Birleşik Devletleri festivali olan Turkic Languages & Heritage Film Festival’ı (TLFF) kurduğunu duyurdu. Açılış sezonu 4–5 Aralık 2026’da New York’ta, 821 United Nations Plaza adresindeki Türk Evi’nde başlıyor; 30 Nisan–1 Mayıs 2027’de Washington, DC’de tamamlanıyor.
İki hafta sonu arasında 21 haftalık ulusal sezon boyunca gösterimler, yönetmen sohbetleri ve halka açık eğitim oturumları ülke genelindeki üye derneklere taşınıyor. Halka açık gösterimler ücretsizdir; RSVP gereklidir.
“ATAA yarım yüzyıla yakın bir süredir Amerika genelinde Türk Amerikalı derneklerin ortak çatısı oldu; bugün ülkenin dört bir yanında birbirine bağlı bir topluluk ağı yönetiyor. Bu ağ, kültürel temsilin en kalıcı biçimde inşa edildiği yapıdır — ve bu festival onun üzerine kuruluyor. Sacramento’da ya da Ohio’da bir gösterimin ev sahibi, o şehirde on yıllardır çalışan derneğin kendisi. Bir kültür kurumunu ayakta tutan şey tek bir salon değil, arkasındaki topluluktur; ATAA’nın festivale sunduğu da tam olarak budur.”
“Dil, hafızayı, mekânı ve görme biçimlerini taşır — sinema da onlara biçim verir. TLFF ile Türk dünyasının birbirinden farklı sinema seslerini Amerika’da ortak bir kültürel alana taşıyoruz; taşıdıkları hikâyeleri ve dilleri onurlandırırken çağdaş bakışlara, yeni kuşak sinemacılara ve yeni anlatım biçimlerine de yer açıyoruz. Festivalin, mirasın yalnızca hatırlandığı değil, geleceği kuran kuşaklar tarafından sürekli yeniden hayal edildiği bir yer olmasını istiyoruz.”
“New York festivalin kurucu şehri, Türk Evi de bu başlangıç için doğru adres. Birleşmiş Milletler’in karşısında, kültürel temsilin kurumsal bir dille konuşulduğu bir binada bir film festivali açmak bizim için tesadüf değil. Bu şehrin seyircisi altyazıyı bir engel olarak değil bir davet olarak okur; bize düşen o daveti hakkıyla kurmak.”
Program merkezinde Türk dillerinde sinema yer alıyor; küratöryel çerçeve ayrıca tarihsel ve kültürel olarak bağlı coğrafyalardan, konusu Türk dünyasının dilleri, mirası, hafızası veya tarihsel deneyimiyle anlamlı biçimde ilişkilenen seçkin yapımları da kapsıyor. Filmler İngilizce altyazılı gösteriliyor.
Gösterimlerin yanında festival, TLFF Eğitim Direktörü Ebru Milci, Ph.D.’nin yürüttüğü Discovery programını sürdürüyor: yıl boyu devam eden yönetmen sohbetleri, dil ve bölge kaynakları ve açık arşiv.
“Bir film gösterildiği akşam biter, ama bir kültür programı bitmez. Discovery, seyircinin filmi okuyabilmesi için gereken bağlamı kuruyor: hangi dilde konuşuluyor, o dili kim taşıyor, o coğrafyada sinema hangi koşullarda yapılıyor. Yönetmen sohbetlerini, dil ve bölge kaynaklarını ve arşivi yıl boyu açık tutuyoruz — çünkü festivalin asıl mirası, gösterim salonundan sonra kalan bilgi.”
Açık başvurular, festivalin ilk sezonu için FilmFreeway üzerinden kabul ediliyor. Seçim sonuçları sinemacılara 15 Kasım 2026'da duyurulacak, tam Resmi Seçki New York açılışından önce yayımlanacak.
Turkic Languages & Heritage Film Festival · ATAA Sanat Komitesi programı
A five-member international jury — bringing together festival leadership, filmmaking, production, film scholarship and criticism — evaluates the Official Selection and determines the awards. Jury members serve for one season and may not have a film in the selection. Appointments for the inaugural season are announced before the opening.
Deliberation — the jury president chairs the discussion and casts the deciding vote. Scoring covers screenplay and story, directing, cinematography and visuals, and cultural and linguistic value.
Posters and approved stills are currently available for the following invited films. Credit lines must be reproduced as given.
The Colors of Nazar follows the traditional bridal face-painting ritual of the Bosniak community living in the village of Planjane, at the foothills of Kosovo's Šar Mountains. Passed down from generation to generation to protect the bride from the evil eye, this practice is not merely an aesthetic preparation, but a living heritage through which women's cultural memory, communal identity, and sense of belonging become visible.
A young man who wants to leave this world behind wakes up in a hospital room, where he encounters a hospital attendant who has been mourning the death of his son for years. One has remained silent for years, while the other has never listened; together, they begin a profound conversation about leaving and staying.
A fairy tale documentary of Büşra Ün, the first female tennis player to represent Türkiye in the Paralympics, her stance against life and the sacrifices she has made on the way from her daily life to her sports career.
An untold story about Oya, considered a sculpture created with needle and thread, is a unique art found exclusively in Anatolia.
Gülbiye, the only woman in the village farming silkworms for the purpose of producing silk thread, teaches her granddaughter Ada about silkworm farming and the oya rituals through tales, while an oya collector embarks on a journey to discover the story behind one of his favorite oya. The story introduces us to oyas, which were once the voice of oppressed women but later became a source of empowerment by allowing women to achieve economic independence.
Aza and Samat, two drug runners navigating the secret routes in the mountains of Central Asia, stumble upon Nazik, a young girl fleeing from slavery. When Nazik is recaptured by a local criminal, facing a grim return to captivity, Aza resolves to rescue her, whatever it takes.
Director's bio — Dastan Zhapar, a filmmaker from Kyrgyzstan, gained international recognition with his debut feature A Father's Will. The film won multiple awards, including the Golden Zenith for Best First Fiction Feature at the 2016 Montreal World Film Festival. It also earned three prizes at the 2016 Minsk International Film Festival and the Grand Prix for Best Asia Film at the 2017 Bengaluru International Film Festival. Zhapar's film won three awards at the 2017 Durban International Film Festival, including Best Feature Film. Additionally, it was nominated for the Russian National Film Award “Nika” and the Asia Pacific Screen Awards.
No. TLFF begins with a language family, not a single country. The festival brings together cinema from across the Turkic-speaking world and its diasporas, including films reflecting the experiences of Turkish and other Turkic communities living outside their countries of origin. Turkish-language cinema is an important part of that landscape, but it is not the whole of it.
TLFF welcomes films in any Turkic language, including Turkish, Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Turkmen, Tatar and Sakha, among others.
The programme may also include films from other linguistic or geographic contexts when their subject matter has a meaningful connection to Turkic languages, cultures, communities or experiences.
TLFF's scope extends beyond cultural heritage. The festival is equally interested in contemporary life, migration and diaspora, belonging, memory, changing identities, and the ways new generations reinterpret and reshape their cultural connections.
TLFF is built around a language family rather than a national cinema. Through film, the festival explores both the cultural heritage of the Turkic world and the contemporary lives emerging from it — across countries, generations and diasporas.
The programme brings historical memory into conversation with present-day experience, creating space for stories of migration, belonging, hybrid and evolving identities, new generations, emerging filmmakers and new forms of cinematic expression.
Films enter the programme through open submissions via FilmFreeway and through curatorial invitation. Eligible submissions are reviewed by the TLFF programming team in accordance with the festival's selection criteria. Submission results are announced to filmmakers on November 15, 2026.
TLFF public screenings are free. RSVP may be required for individual programmes where seating is limited. Suggested donations are welcome and help support the festival's nonprofit cultural programming, but no donation is required to attend.
No. TLFF is a cultural and educational film festival. Its programming is guided by cinematic, cultural and educational considerations. The festival does not endorse political parties, movements or political positions.
Yes. A selected film may be programmed for more than one TLFF screening during the 2026–2027 season, subject to screening rights, programme requirements and local arrangements.
TLFF is developing a network of screenings and cultural programmes across the United States in collaboration with ATAA member associations and other participating institutions. Cities, venues and dates are announced as arrangements are confirmed.
Yes. In addition to its competitive sections, TLFF may present invited films, episodic works and other curated projects as Special Screenings or Special Presentations outside the competition.
Recording a film during a screening is not permitted. Photography, interviews and authorized media activities may take place in designated areas in accordance with festival and venue guidelines.
Interviews, images and accreditation
For film stills, director interviews, screening accreditation or high-resolution assets, write to the festival office and we will respond within two working days.
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