It is a documented fact in biographies, memoirs, and monographs that non-Muslims pioneered early cinema in Turkey, while Muslims were essentially the audience. In the late Ottoman period, cinema developed under state auspices, initially undertaken by the military, later by societies, and eventually by private entrepreneurs. This shift marked cinema’s transition from documentary to fiction, introducing the concept of representation and related debates. Early Turkish cinema relied heavily on imported films, while domestic production began to emerge in the late Ottoman and early Republican eras. Challenging the notion that Turkish cinema was transformed into a strictly secular project under radical policies, this study examines various forms of secularization within cinema and the expanding cinematic sphere, including its objections. The Republic’s artistic vision, shaped by a socialist-individualist concept of progress, contrasts with Yeşilçam’s traditional, secular reading, centered on neighborhood life. The tension between modernity and religion, pronounced in early Turkish cinema, paved the way for a distinctive form of secularism from the 1950s to the 1980s.