Keitel Honored at Istanbul Film Festival

ISTANBUL, Turkey – Actor Harvey Keitel was awarded a lifetime achievement prize Saturday at the closing ceremony of the 24th Istanbul Film Festival.

Italian film legend Sophia Loren received the achievement award at the opening of the festival.

A Belgian film about a woman dealing with her husband’s affair with her sister and a Japanese film about an unmarried reporter’s unexpected pregnancy were joint winners at the ceremony. “Gille’s Wife” by Frederic Foteyne and “Cafe Lumiere,” a Japanese film by Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien, picked up the Golden Tulip prize.

“Two beautiful films!” director Jane Campion, who headed the jury, exclaimed as she announced the winners.

“Cafe Lumiere” was filmed as a tribute to Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu on the centenary of his birth. “Gille’s Wife” is an adaptation of a 1937 novel by Belgian author Madeleine Bourdouxhe.

The best Turkish film in the national competition went to “Anlat Istanbul” or “Istanbul Tales,” directed by a team of five: Umit Unal, Kudret Sabanci, Selim Demirdelen, Yucel Yolcu and Omur Atay.