Prof. İsmail Arda Odabaşı Delivers Keynote Address at the 5th International Film Studies Symposium

Prof. İsmail Arda Odabaşı, Dean of our School of Communication, took part as the keynote speaker at the 5th International Film Studies Symposium, organised by the Film Studies Association (FAD) and hosted by Sakarya University’s Faculty of Communication.

Held on 4–5 November 2026 at Sakarya University’s Esentepe Campus with the support of the General Directorate of Cinema of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the symposium brought together academics, researchers, industry professionals and students, addressing the theoretical, historical and applied dimensions of film studies from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Turkish Film Culture and Developing Literature

Following the opening speeches by Assoc. Prof. Mustafa Aslan, President of FAD and Head of the Department of Radio, Television and Cinema at Sakarya University, and Assoc. Prof. Serhat Yetimova, Chair of the Symposium Organising Committee, Prof. Odabaşı took the stage to deliver his keynote address titled “New Developments in the Literature on Early Cinema in Türkiye”.

As part of the symposium, participants also had the opportunity to visit the exhibition “Cinemas in La Patrie: La Patrie 1908–1913 Grande Rue de Péra,” which reflects early Ottoman film culture through the cinemas of Pera, and to attend a screening of the documentary “Cinemas in La Patrie: 1908–1913”.

Papers presented at the symposium will be published in an open-access Full-Text Proceedings Book.