International Film Festivals in Turkey in the context of cultural diplomacy

International film festivals are one of the important cultural platforms that artists and countries can represent themselves. Through festivals, artists and countries have the chance to represent themselves on international platforms. Through the technological developments in the 20th century, the transfer of culture has become easier and culture has become an element of soft power in the globalizing world. In this way, countries started to use culture as a tool in their foreign policies and as a result, the definition of cultural diplomacy emerged. At this point, international film festivals can also be considered as a tool of cultural diplomacy. According to social construction theory, culture is a symbol of the language that makes up the knowledge and is very effective in the construction and transmission of reality. In cultural diplomacy activities, an identity is built through culture and this identity takes place in international platforms. The main purpose of this research is to explain the role of international film festivals in Turkey in cultural diplomacy processes. In addition to the artistic outputs of film festivals, the roles they play in the process of cultural diplomacy and the construction of identity, stand out as a subject that needs to be examined. Furthermore, there is no detailed analysis of festivals in this context in the literature. The artistic dimension of festivals is often discussed, its impact on film content is discussed, but its role in the construction of identity and cultural diplomacy has not been explored. The study is also important in this respect. Document review and interview methods will be used in data collection in the study. The resulting data will be examined by descriptive analysis and discourse analysis method.