Cinema of Turkey
| Turkish Cinema | |
|---|---|
Maxim Night Club, previously Cinemajik Movie Theater in Taksim, Istanbul. | |
| No. of screens | 2,826 (2019) |
| • Per capita | 3.32 per 100,000 (2019) |
| Main distributors | CGV Mars Distribution 50.83% UIP 22.52% TME Films 14.43% P-inema 5.37% |
| Produced feature films (2012) | |
| Total | 61 |
| Number of admissions (2012) | |
| Total | 43,935,763 |
| • Per capita | 0.8 (2016) |
| National films | 20,487,220 (47.0%) |
| Gross box office (2012) | |
| Total | $234 million |
| National films | $109 million (46.6%) |
The Cinema of Turkey or Turkish cinema (also formerly known as Yeşilçam, which translates literally to Green Pine in Turkish), (Turkish pronunciation: [ˈjeʃiltʃam]) or Türk sineması refers to the Turkish film art and industry. It is an important part of Turkish culture, and has flourished over the years, delivering entertainment to audiences in Türkiye, Turkish expatriates across Europe, the Balkans & Eastern Europe, also more recently prospering in the Arab world alongside the Egyptian cinema and, to a lesser extent, the rest of the world.
In ancient Turkic cultures before Islam, Turkish storytelling traditions developed from shaman and humanistic ritual practices. Shamanism came from Mongolian culture. Shaman rituals featured natural and spiritual elements accompanied by music. Female shamans were considered more powerful while male shamans could wear feminine accessories. These offered erudite advice through imitations, witty and rhyming verses, recreations of historical episodes and usually included fantasy figures. Today Bakshy, Ashik, Ozan traditions perpetuate these forms in Turkic countries. However Aytysh could improvised competitions in 1990s in media of Turkey. They have risk of getting lost in new generation.
The first film exhibited in the Ottoman Empire was the Lumière Brothers' 1895 film, L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat, which was shown in Constantinople (modern day Istanbul) in 1896. The Weavers (1905), by the Manaki brothers, was the first film made in the Ottoman Empire. The earliest surviving film made in what is present-day Turkey was a documentary entitled Ayastefanos'taki Rus Abidesinin Yıkılışı (Demolition of the Russian Monument at San Stefano), directed by Fuat Uzkınay and completed in 1914. The first narrative film in Ottoman Empire isn't known for certain.
Turkey's first sound film Bir Millet Uyanıyor was shown in 1931. Traditional Turkish theater had improvisation storytellers like Meddah, orta oyunu, Karagöz and Hacivat. Western storytelling drama format evolved, After Darülbedayi (1914) in Ottoman Empire and Ankara State Conservatory (1936) in Turkey. Due to their training format, Theater actors moved away from cinema or they only did dubbing in cinema. So, Turkish cinema started to evolve in 1960s. Yeşilçam era was the world's 4th biggest cinema.