Famous director Emir Kusturica said on Sunday that he withdrew from jury membership of the 47th International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, Anadolu Agency reported.
Bosnian descent Serbian director Kusturica gave a news conference and said he also cancelled a workshop with students in southern province of Antalya. He noted he would leave from Turkey after the news conference.
"Barbarism, rudeness" Kusturica said while describing the protests against him. "It is known that I am anti-imperialist. Attacks on me from this point are meaningless. What I struggled for was United Yugoslavia."
Kusturica said, "my vision for my country is my personal vision. I am not a member of a political party. My statements totally stem from my beliefs. They are sometimes right, sometimes wrong. I always believe they are right but they may not be right".
Several groups in Turkey protested Kusturica claiming that he supported genocide towards Muslims by Serbians in Bosnia.
The Festival is being co-hosted by the Antalya Municipality and Antalya Culture and Arts Foundation and hosts important stars of Turkish Cinema.
The Festival officially kicked off on Saturday and will be celebrated with various events in all corners of Antalya.
As part of the inauguration of the Festival, a "Parade of Stars" took place in Antalya.
The parade was attended by renowned Turkish stars and artists, including Esref Kolcak, Mujdat Gezen, Erkan Can, Ilker Inanoglu, and Sumer Tilmac, as well as the Mayor of Antalya Mustafa Akaydin.
A total of 191 films, including 130 Turkish and 61 foreign films from 35 countries, will be screened during the festival.
Themed "Cinema and Social Interaction", this year's festival will be sponsored by the Antalya Metropolitan Municipality and organized by the Antalya Culture & Arts Foundation.
Eleven films from Europe and Asia will compete in the International category of the Golden Orange.
In this international contest, there will be one film from Italy, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Turkey, Hong-Kong, and Russia and two films from Germany. Also there will be co-productions from Korea-China and Serbia-Croatia-France.