In addition to the academic programme organized within the scope of the Turkish Cinema Summer School, the young filmmakers from abroad had the chance to discover İstanbul and Gaziantep for cultural context, as these are two of Turkey’s natural film sets.

Participants had a chance to visit some of Istanbul’s most popular touristic attractions as part of the cultural compass of the programme. They went to places in the historical peninsula, the Bosphorus, Taksim-İstiklal Caddesi and Büyükada, while also getting to taste traditional Turkish delicacies along the places they visited.

The young filmmakers also toured the city of Gaziantep as part of the Summer School programme’s excursions line-up. Gaziantep is not only listed among the Creative Cities Network by UNESCO, designated as a Creative City of Gastronomy, but as a city, it has also hosted a lot of movies and television series. The trip aimed to share the ancient cultural accumulation of Gaziantep with the young filmmakers, as they were taken to visit the Culinary Arts Training Centre and were given the chance to venture into and experience Turkish cooking. The participants were also taken to visit the Zeugma Mosaic Museum, which is among the most important cultural and historic museums in the world.