Istanbul Film Festival to begin online from Friday

Turkey's prestigious Istanbul Film Festival will begin online from Friday, with 15 selected films set to entertain the public from May 15-29.

The 39th Istanbul Film Festival, organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), originally scheduled from April 10-21, was postponed earlier amid fears of coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic.

"The Istanbul Film Festival, held in April every year since 1984, was postponed to a later date during the year due to the COVID-19 outbreak. For the first time in its 39th anniversary, the festival opens access to 15 films selected carefully from Cannes, Venice, and Berlin film festivals on filmonline.iksv.org between May 15-29," IKSV said in a statement.

A movie will be available on the website each day and can be watched for five days after it is made accessible online. The total time that the audience can watch after starting a movie is 30 hours, the statement added.

Since appearing in China last December, the novel coronavirus has spread to at least 188 countries and regions, with its epicenter having shifted to Europe and the US.

The pandemic has killed over 297,400 people, with total infections surpassing 4.36 million, while more than 1.56 million people have recovered from the disease, according to figures compiled by the Johns Hopkins University in the US.