July 1st, 2024 was a very exciting day for me! It was the date when submissions started for the Ankara International Wildlife Documentary Film Festival, the first of its kind in the country... I am Ece Soydam, a long-time wildlife filmmaker and the very recent founder of this new festival in Türkiye.

For about 20 years, I have been participating in wildlife documentary film festivals organized in many countries abroad. Some of these festivals are new, some have been going on for almost 50 years. To make it to the finals of these festivals with the wildlife documentaries we produced at TRT between 2002 – 2024, to receive awards, to have talks with the audience, and to try to contribute to the promotion of Türkiye's wildlife was so invaluable for me.

Having participated in many international wildlife film festivals since the past 20 years, I have always been thrilled to watch great documentaries, meet with and learn from colleagues from around the world and exchange information. Every time I came back from a festival to Ankara, I always talked about it for days and wished the team, my colleagues, the emerging wildlife filmmakers in Türkiye, my friends and my family could experience that atmosphere I so much enjoyed.

As I can’t take everyone with me to these festivals, it just dawned upon me one day -  “Why not bring the festival to them”? And “Why not introduce wildlife filmmakers to Turkish wildlife?”

Thus, I set out to organize this brand-new festival in order to attract national and international attention to the wildlife of Anatolia, to contribute to nature conservation efforts and to support the development of wildlife documentary filmmaking.

Organizing a festival is costly and brings together many different institutions. Thanks to the institutions and individuals supporting the international wildlife documentary film festival, which will be held for the first time in Türkiye, we can embark on this journey. I hope we can complete the first of this festival together, saying there will be many more to come. 

It is a great honor and pleasure for me to invite all documentary filmmakers and viewers to the 1st Ankara International Wildlife Documentary Film Festival.

Looking forward to meeting you between May 15-18, 2025...

Ece Soydam

Festival Founder and President