Turkish Cinema Summer School was designed as a new project within the Turkish Summer School’s programs by the Yunus Emre Institute. Hosting participants from the field of cinema, it is a programme conducted in cooperation with Istanbul Şehir University with the support of the General Directorate of Cinema of Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The first of its kind, the 2018 Turkish Cinema Summer School programme hosted 23 young movie makers from 20 different countries around the world and lasted for 2 weeks.

In addition to undergraduate and graduate cinema students, young people from the cinema sector like directors and script writers participated in the summer school. The participants had a chance to go through the evolution of Turkish cinema through film screenings, seminars, mini panels, interviews, field visits and they met also film directors, cinematographers, film critics, actor and actresses and festival directors. Adventures of cinema in Turkey were handled from several aspects: from the arrival of cinema to the Ottomans, to Turkish television series and from leading woman movie makers to documentary cinema.

An integral part of the summer school was the trips in and around Istanbul, which has been the scene of numerous Turkish and international cinema movies.