In 1984, Kaplanoğlu moved to Istanbul and worked for a couple of years as a copywriter for advertising companies like Güzel Sanatlar Saatchi & Saatchi and Young & Rubicam.
Among the honorable guests of the festival were film legend Claudia Cardinale, one of the most well regarded stars of Italian and French cinema, Atom Egoyan, Semih Kaplanoglu, Claire Denis, Armen Medvedev, Rob Nilsson and Stanislav Govorukhin.