Abstract
In the 21st century, posters have various purposes such as expressing content, making an impact on the audience, and receving much more audience. It is in an effort to attract attention and gain a place in the international arena through the posters of international film festivals organized in Turkey and attracting attention not only from Turkey but also from near and far. Makinguse of local images, especially in festival posters, serves this purpose. Although the annual festivals are interrupted in 2020 due to the Covid 19 epidemic, it seems that the visual imagery will continue to a greater extent in the coming years. In this study, the posters of the international film festivals held every year in Turkey are discussed in the context of the use of local images for their promotional role. The posters of eleven different film festivals held in 2019 were examined in terms of containing local images, using the semiotic analysis method within the framework of the concepts of denotation and connotation of the French Language and Semiologist Roland Barthes. In addition, the festival posters examined within the scope of the study were evaluated together with the findings of the study. In the light of the findings, it was concluded that the posters designed for the film festivals screened in Turkey preferred local images and contributed to the promotion at the regional level.