Students at the İzmir University of Economics (İEU) Faculty of Communications won the Silver Award at the Spotlight Horror Film Awards with their short film "Orkide ve Eşek Arısı" (Orchid and Hornet).
According to a statement released by the university, third year students İlay Onar, Aybüke Özdemir, İbrahim Katmerci and Göksu Hacıbekirler shot their 14-minute short film "Orkide ve Eşek Arısı" under the supervision of academic Hazal Bayar. Bayar, the instructor at the İEU Faculty of Communications' Department of Cinema and Digital Media, said that the students shot the short film as part of "Theory and Practice of Motion Video" class and they were inspired by the word "harbor" for their project. "Roughly 20 students who took the class presented a total of six projects. My students Onar, Özdemir, Katmerci and Hacıbekirler told me that they were considering shooting a horror film. Since, I am studying horror films and female murderers; I thought that we could work on a script. One of the species of orchid is reminiscent of a hornet. Moreover, hornets consider flowers as their partners. Hence, we decided to start from this fact and created a story about a hybrid body. We continue to send out film to various festivals around the world."
The film won the Silver Award at the Spotlight Horror Films Award that took place in the U.S. and also received the Special Jury Award at the seventh Lions International Short Film Awards. Bayar said that Turkish cinema lacks horror films and most horror films focus on religious elements that alienates foreign audiences. "Unfortunately, there is not female horror genre in Turkish cinema," said Bayar, adding that the film students are in the leading roles as well. "İlay Onar and academic Emre Kırtunç starred in the film as well. We shot the film in six days in İzmir's Mordoğan district. The entire film crew is composed of our students. It is flattering to return from the Spotlight Horror Film Awards in Atlanta with an award. We are proud of our students as they applied what they learned from our classes on their project," Bayar concluded.
