Showcasing nearly 40 feature, short and documentary films every year, Accessible Film Festival also presents parallel activities such as Q&A sessions with the filmmakers, workshops, virtual reality experiences, exhibitions etc. with the aim of extending the cinema culture.
Within the framework of the Festival, outstanding films of world and Turkish cinema are presented to the audience under various thematic sections. Took place in Ankara in it’s first four years, the Festival has been meeting with the moviegoers in Istanbul and Eskişehir as well since 2017. In 2020, the Festival was held online due to Covid-19 pandemic and it was followed from all over Turkey. Aiming to promote short film culture and provide more representation to the short filmmakers, the Festival included an international short film competition to it’s program in 2021.
Designed as an event where everyone can access to cinema under equal conditions, the Festival presents it’s films with Turkish audio description and Turkish caption subtitling. The Q&A sessions following the screenings are accompanied by Turkish sign language translators. The workshops, panels and other parallel activities within the Festival are realized in an accessible structure and all venues are selected from the accessible ones. Also it is paid attention that the communication channels such as the website are accessible.
In 2019, Accessible Film Festival became a founder member of an international network called BE IN! Network of Accessible Festivals. Founded by the initiatives of Klappe Auf! Short Film Festival (Hamburg/Germany), Oska Bright Film Festival (Brighton/UK), Festival Inclus (Barcelona/Spain), European Film Festival Integration You and Me (Koszalin/Poland) and The Extraordinary Film Festival (Namur/Belgium) along with Accessible Film Festival, the network aims promoting equal access to cinema related events and representation of disabled people on cinema&TV by raising these topics on an international level.