Turkey Enters Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Cannes Film “About Dry Grasses” in the Oscar International Feature Competition

The latest Nuri Bilge Ceylan movie, About Dry Grasses, which screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival this year, was submitted by Turkey on Friday to represent the country in the Oscar International Feature competition.

Turkey has selected a Ceylan film to represent the nation at the Academy Awards six times, but none of those films have made it to the final round of nominations. For Winter’s Sleep, he took home the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2014.

Turkey’s entry for the Academy Awards is titled About Dry Grasses by Nuri Bilge Ceylan.

The North American debut of About Dry Grasses will take place at TIFF on September 13 before playing in the Main Slate at the New York Film Festival in October. The film had its world premiere in Cannes, where Merve Dizdar won the Best Actress award.

The film stars Deniz Celiloglu, Merve Dizdar, Musab Ekici, and Eve Bagci as Samet, a young art teacher doing his fourth year of national service in a remote Anatolian village.

Samet loses hope of escaping the depressing life he appears to be trapped in after an unexpected sequence of circumstances that he finds difficult to grasp. Will meeting Nuray, who is also a teacher, help him get over his anxiety?

The drama’s screenplay was co-written by Akin Aksu, Ebru Ceylan, and Nuri Bilge Ceylan for NBC Film, Memento Production, and Komplizen Film Production.

The story of About Dry Grasses concentrates on a young art teacher who is completing his fourth year of national service in a small Anatolian hamlet. He loses hope of escaping the depressing existence he appears destined to live after a series of occurrences he finds difficult to comprehend. To get over his anxiety, he might run into Nuray, who is also a teacher.

The actress who played Nuray, Merve Dizdar, took home the Best Actress award at Cannes for her work in the 3-hour, 17-minute-long movie.

The movie, which was written by Akin Aksu, Ebru Ceylan, and Nuri Bilge Ceylan, and was produced by NBC Film, Memento Production, and Komplizen Film Production, will have its North American premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, which is currently taking place. Next month, it premieres at the New York Film Festival before being distributed by Sideshow and Janus Films in American theaters.