The Sarajevo Film Festival was started 18 years ago in 1995 with the intentions of erasing the scars from the war in Bosnia and to bring the arts back to the city again.
A total 210 films from 57 nations will be showing throughout the festival which runs from July 6th to the 14th.
Competing for the 'Heart of Sarajevo' from Turkey is ''Voice of My Father' (Babamın Sesi)', directed by Orhan Eskiköy and Zeynel Doğan, Emin Alper's 'Beyond the Hill' (Tepenin Ardı) and Belmin Söylemez's 'Present Tense' (Şimdiki Zaman).
This year's Sarajevo Film Festival coincides with the 17th anniversary of the Srebrenitsa genocide. A number of special events will be held to commemorate July 11th including the showing of films which deal with human rights issues. Members of the film industry from all over the world will be discussing Srebrenitsa and a number of events will be held to explain what transpired in Srebrenitsa, including exhibitions, book promotions and panels.
World-renowned pop star Rihanna performed a dazzling concert for an audience of 35,000 in Istanbul’s İnönü Stadium on Thursday night as part of her Diamonds World Tour.
Second-place winner of the Eurovision Song Contest Azerbaijani singer Farid Mammadov paid a visit to Istanbul after his win and prominent display of the Turkish flag during the live broadcast.
In his new book “Inferno”, American writer Dan Brown describes Istanbul as “a world divided, a city of opposing forces.”
Cannes’ popular venue Plage des Palmes hosted an international Istanbul meeting yesterday evening on the sidelines of the famous film festival. 
AK Party Malatya Deputy Ömer Faruk Öz has sent apricots to American film star Angelina Jolie, who recently had a preventative double mastectomy because she carries the BRCA1 gene, which significantly increases the risk she may get breast cancer.
“Inferno”, the new book by Dan Brown, the author of the worldwide best-seller “The Da Vinci Code”, is now on the shelves in a simultaneous release in 12 different countries, including Turkey. The final section of the book takes place in Istanbul and is expected to result in a surge of tourists for Istanbul’s historic Hagia Sophia.
The International Istanbul Puppetry Festival, which will be hosting performances from 15 different nations, kicks off today with a showing of the German-French-Swiss production of “Hotel de Rive”.
When 30,000 Justin Bieber fans all rushed to arrive to the Ayazağa Stadium for the popular young star’s performance Thursday night, traffic was jammed for hours. However, the famous singer did not disappoint his Turkish ‘Beliebers’.
Justin Bieber stopped his performance twice mid-concert last night in Istanbul to honor the ‘Azan’, the Islamic call to prayer. 
A new album has been released of songs composed from eulogies and verses made by Ottoman sultans entitled 'Şarkıların Sultanı' (The Sultan of Songs). 
Conductor Özfırat of the Antakya Civilizations Choir, which consists of 150 members of a diverse variety of religious and sectarian backgrounds and performs in Turkish, Arabic, Armenian and Kurdish, says, “I want to spread the message of peace with my music.”
