Release Çiğdem Mater! - European Film Academy

Accreditation Form

34th European Film Awards
Berlin

PLEASE NOTE:

Accreditation to the European Film Awards is limited to people who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 or who have recovered after a Covid-19 infection – provided they do not show typical Covid-19 symptoms.

A proof of vaccination or recovery must be digitally verifiable with an EU Digital COVID Certificate – printed QR codes are also digitally verifiable.

The mask requirement and the requirement to maintain a minimum distance will then no longer apply indoors.

For more detailed and up-to-date information on traveling to Germany, as well as a current list of risk areas, please visit the web pages of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany.

1. Personal data

Are you a EFA Member?

Yes No

First name

Last name

Phone

E-mail

CC to (editor, assistant) Optional

2. Represented media outlet

Name of media outlet

Section / programme Optional

Company address

Street address

Postal code

City

Contact

Phone

General e-mail

Media type and language

Other

Language(s)

Position

Other

Editor’s confirmation

I hereby confirm that the representative has been commissioned to report from the European Film Awards

Full name

Postal code

Phone

E-mail

Date

City

3. Type of accreditation

Photo TV Media

Additional comments

I agree to the following Terms and Conditions of the media accreditation procedure of the European Film Academy for the European Film Awards

By submitting the accreditation form, the media representative accepts and agrees to the following:

The entered and transmitted personal data will be stored in the European Film Academy database and used to contact you in connection with the accreditation process and for information purposes concerning the European Film Awards.

Representative’s name, media outlet and country may be passed on to other accredited media representatives, to our partners, sponsors and funding institutions, as well as to the agents of the nominees and winners of the European Film Awards. Furthermore, this information may be stored in order to fulfill our reporting obligations to the funding institutions and for other statistical evaluation.

Other personal data will be deleted as soon as the purpose for retaining such data ceases to apply, i.e. four weeks after the European Film Awards took place. Notwithstanding the generality of the foregoing, data may be stored if required by Union of Member State law to which we are subject.

Data will also be blocked or deleted if a retention period prescribed by laws and regulations expires, unless there is a need for further storage of the data for the conclusion of fulfillment of a contract.

Please note that during all official events of the EFA Weekend photo and video recordings are made, which may be used in digital and/or in printed media for press information and public relations. For details please see our Privacy Policy.

Participating in the European Film Awards implies the unconditional acceptance of the above conditions.

The data protection officer of European Film Academy e.V. is Rainer Pyls. He may be contacted using the contact details provided above as well as at privacy@europeanfilmacademy.org. For further information please see our Privacy Policy.

The International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (ICFR) calls for the Turkish authorities to immediately and unconditionally release film producer Çiğdem Mater.

On Monday, 25 April 2022, Çiğdem Mater was sentenced to 18 years in prison, together with six co-defendants, in what Amnesty International describes as “a travesty of justice of spectacular proportions”. The main accusation against Çiğdem is that she was trying to raise financing for a documentary project about the Gezi Park movement – a film which was never made.

Çiğdem Mater is a Turkish film producer and journalist. Since 2010 she has produced multiple Turkish documentaries and feature films such as MAJORITY (2010) and SIVAS (2014, Best Youth Feature Film Award at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards). She also worked as local producer for international projects shot in Turkey such as Ai Weiwei’s HUMAN FLOW, Eric Baudlaire’s AKA and Muhammed Ben Attia’s WELDI. She is the founding co-ordinator for the Armenia Turkey Cinema Platform which supports co-production between Turkey and Armenia.

Çiğdem Mater is one of 13 high-profile academics and cultural workers who were initially arrested by the Turkish police in 2018. This was in a crackdown against people and organisations connected to the 2013 Gezi Park protests. While they were later released, the Turkish government alleges that those involved in the protests sought to overthrow the government of then Prime Minister, now President Erdogan. At the forefront of these accusations was prominent philanthropist Osman Kavala, who has been in prison without a conviction since 2017. Initially, the court in Istanbul cleared Kaval of espionage charges but found him guilty of attempting to overthrow the government amid mass protests in Gezi Park in 2013. Kavala denies allegations that he financed the anti-government protests.

Çiğdem Mater returned to Turkey from Germany on 15 February and attended the hearings of the Gezi Park Case. The court arrested her, saying ‘there is a suspicion of escape’. Mater’s lawyer Hürrem Sönmez said that his client was in Germany as part of a project but returned to the country to attend the hearings. On Monday, 25 April 2022, Çiğdem Mater was among seven defendants connected to Kavala who were sentenced to 18 years in prison for ‘aiding his crime’.

Mater said in her defense: “I participated in the Gezi Park protests as an activist to protect the park, and as a filmmaker. I haven’t made a film about this, as argued in the indictment, but I could have. This is something we must be discussing not in courtrooms, but in movie theatres.”

Such an extreme sentence does not only violate the rights of Ms. Mater and her colleagues, but furthermore, it is a flagrant threat to freedom of expression as it seeks to silence all filmmakers and artists through fear. ICFR calls on the Turkish authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Çiğdem Mater and her colleagues and we encourage all film and culture institutions around the world to do the same.

28 April 2022