Aydın Orak / Director / Jury President
Aydın Orak was born in 1982. He received two years of training in Theatre Directing at the Performing Arts Center. Orak, who has translated plays by many authors including Gogol, Ibsen, Yaşar Kemal, and Haşmet Zeybek, left Istanbul Bilgi University's Department of Performing Arts and Performance. His feature film, *Moses Without a Staff*, was released in Turkey in 2014. He participated in many national and international film festivals and received awards. With the films and plays he directed, he participated in important festivals and tours in Turkey, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Germany, France, Switzerland, Canada, Austria, and Australia. He served as a jury member at festivals such as the Alexandria International Film Festival, the Adana International Film Festival, and the Antakya Film Festival. He was awarded the Best Actor Award by the Direklerarası Theatre Awards. He has published five books in the fields of poetry, translation, and research. He has acted, directed, and translated in dozens of theatre productions. He lives in Istanbul.
Cansel Elçin / Actor
Cansel Elçin was born in 1973 in Tire, İzmir. He completed his primary and secondary education in France, after which he studied economics and social sciences. He began his theatrical career with evening courses and continued by enrolling in Ecole Florent. He took film and theater classes from John Strasberg, son of Lee Strasberg, and Jack Garfein. After graduation, he played various roles in numerous plays in different regions of France. He directed and wrote the screenplay for a short film titled "Papillon" (Butterfly). He played the lead role in the television series "Hatırla Sevgili" (Remember, My Love) and was awarded the "Best Male TV Series Actor" award at the 7th Communication Awards organized by Beykent University, with 8000 students participating in the voting. He appeared in the feature film "Küçük Kıyamet" (Little Apocalypse), directed by Yağmur and Durul Taylan. In 2014, he starred alongside Sema Öztürk in the short film "Roya". The film was featured at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival's Turkey stand. In 2015, he played the role of "Dr. Victor Frankenstein" in the play Frankenstein staged at the Sadri Alışık Theatre. He has also successfully appeared in many other productions such as Sol Yanım Ağlama Anne, Dayan Yüreğim Barbaros Hayreddin: Sultanın Fermanı, Senkron, and Börü.
Gül Abus Semerci
A graduate of the Department of Theatre and Writing at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Dokuz Eylül University.
She has three books titled “My Dearest Husband”, “Hamdi Bey/ A Knight in a Black Cloak”, and “The Urinal Anxiety”. She is the screenwriter of the film “Bathroom”, directed by Mustafa Altıoklar.
She has written screenplays for more than 20 television series, including O Hayat Benim, Kırgın Çiçekler, Aşk ve Mavi, Kardeşlerim, and Kaderimin Oyunu.
Her first book of poetry, “We Look Fine on the Outside, But Our Inner Troubles Are Great”, was published in 2024.
She has directed three documentaries: “We Are the Children of the Park Wearing Generation Who Went to the Park”, “I Beg You to Like Me”, and “Who Killed J.R.?”. Her documentary “We Made Many Deaths This Spring”, filmed during the pandemic, is currently in the editing stage.
Murat Hasarı
Murat Hasarı studied Economics at Çukurova University and Performing and Visual Arts (Photography) at Mimar Sinan University Faculty of Fine Arts. He has left a significant mark on Turkish music as a composer, lyricist, and performer. His works such as "Yanarım," "Ah Be İstanbul," and "Nisan Yağmuru" have been performed by many artists, including Sertab Erener, Ajda Pekkan, Yavuz Bingöl, and Özcan Deniz. He has released albums with the band Merdiven, which he founded, and has given concerts both domestically and internationally. He has produced a wide range of music for films, television series, documentaries, and commercials. He has composed music for productions such as Asmalı Konak, Ah Be İstanbul, and Yaşar Kemal Efsanesi. He has also served as a composer and member of the directing team in theater and dance projects. He plays the bağlama, tambur, guitar, and cura. He has served as a jury member at festivals such as the Golden Orange and Golden Cocoon. He served two terms as treasurer on the MESAM board of directors.
Majid Panahi
Majid Panahi is a Turkish-Iranian writer, director, and editor. With years of experience in television, film, and documentary filmmaking, Panahi has produced international projects in the drama and art film genres. The director of films such as Chalangar, Don Quixote, and Cockfighting, Panahi is also an editor with a strong narrative vision. He is known for his work that combines multilingual storytelling, cross-cultural perspectives, and character-driven storytelling with an innovative cinematic language.
Volkan Budak
Volkan Budak is a filmmaker with experience in directing both documentaries and fiction films, as well as editing and cinematography. His films have been featured in numerous national and international festivals, and he has received various awards. He is an academic who teaches various film courses at Marmara University and Istanbul Aydın University. His academic research focuses on the meanings that film editing constructs in viewer perception.
Iffet Eren Danışman Boz
Iffet Eren Danışman Boz graduated from Mimar Sinan University's Cinema and Television Department. Her first film, Turna Misali (2021), had its world premiere at the 34th International Tokyo Film Festival, and has been screened and won awards at many festivals both domestically and internationally. Eren Danışman is currently pursuing a master's degree in Cinema and Television at Mimar Sinan University and is working on her second feature film.
Oğuzhan Altunkurt
Born in Burdur in 1998, Oğuzhan Altunkurt graduated from Marmara University, Faculty of Communication, Department of Radio, Television and Cinema. He completed his master's degree in Cinema Program at the same university's Institute of Social Sciences. Continuing his doctoral studies at Istanbul University, Radio, Television and Cinema Program, Oğuzhan Altunkurt simultaneously works as a Research Assistant at Istanbul Aydın University, Faculty of Communication, Department of Radio, Television and Cinema. His academic work focuses on horror cinema, cultural studies and cinema, genre cinema, and cinema sociology.
Sema Bulat Demir
Sema Bulat Demir completed her undergraduate and graduate studies in Radio, Television and Cinema at Ege University. She then obtained her doctorate in Journalism from Istanbul University. She currently works as an Assistant Professor in the Radio, Television and Cinema (English) Department at Istanbul Aydın University, where she conducts research in the fields of digital culture, media studies, and popular culture, in addition to her teaching activities.
Esra Öztürk Bedir
She received her Bachelor's degree in Cinema and Television from Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Faculty of Fine Arts in 2010. After graduation, she gained experience working in the television series industry before starting her academic career. In 2017, she completed her Master's degree in Radio, Television and Cinema at Marmara University, Institute of Social Sciences, and in 2022, her doctorate in the same field. She is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radio, Television and Cinema at Istanbul Aydın University, Faculty of Communication. Her main academic interests are gender studies, masculinity studies, and memory studies. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses such as Cinema Theories, Cinema Workshop, Screenwriting, Film Criticism, Introduction to Cinema, and Documentary Cinema.
Işkın Özbulduk Kılıç
Işkın Özbulduk Kılıç is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual Communication Design at Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University, Faculty of Fine Arts. She began her academic career in 2014 at Gazi University, Faculty of Communication, Department of Radio, Cinema and Television. She completed her undergraduate studies at Ankara University, Faculty of Communication, Department of Public Relations and Advertising, and Faculty of Language and History-Geography, Department of Philosophy. She received her master's degree from Gazi University, Radio, Cinema and Television Program; and her doctorate from Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University, Department of Radio, Cinema and Television, with her thesis titled "A New Perspective on Audience and Film Experience: The Neurophenomenological Method". Her research areas include audience experience, cognitive film studies, neurophenomenology, film aesthetics, and atmosphere in cinema. She has served as an editorial writer for the SineFilozofi journal. She currently serves as the Vice President of the Cinema and Philosophy Association.
Burhan Kılıç
He completed his undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral studies in Radio, Television, and Cinema at Istanbul University. In addition to his published articles on cinema and media, he has undertaken consultancy, editing, and acting roles in short film projects. He teaches practical courses such as Image Techniques, Editing Techniques, and Cinematography, as well as theoretical courses such as Cinema and Propaganda, Film Criticism, Contemporary Turkish Cinema, and Popular Culture and Cinema in undergraduate and graduate programs.
Karim Azimi
Karim Azimi was born in Iran, and his early connection with cinema quickly transformed him into an international storyteller. He attracted attention with his cinematic language focusing on the fragility of the human soul, loneliness, and the struggle for survival. His films, such as *Ata*, *Cinema*, *Butterflies Die in the Snow*, *My Home is Cloudy*, and *Survivor*, resonated strongly with audiences across diverse geographies. Azimi's films have been selected for over 500 national and international festivals to date; this journey has earned him more than 50 awards. This success story, stretching from Canada to America, Belgium to Poland, India to Jordan, has been crowned with Gold and Bronze awards at prestigious festivals such as Ghent, Asolo, Shimla, and Baku. The Philadelphia, Roosevelt, and Columbus Gold Awards in America are significant indicators of his international impact. In his own country, he received the Gold Award at the Tehran International Film Festival, as well as the title of "Best of the Best" of the last 30 years. In 2024, he took this achievement to a higher level by receiving the "Outstanding Intelligence" Award in the field of art in Iran. Today, Karim Azimi continues his journey as one of the powerful and enduring voices of contemporary world cinema, using cinema as a language that transcends borders.
Academic Jury
Prof. Sefa Çeliksap
The artist completed his undergraduate education at Marmara University, Faculty of Fine Arts, (State School of Applied Fine Arts) Textile Design Department. He received his Master's degree from Mimar Sinan University, Social Sciences Institute, Textile Main Art Branch, and a Proficiency in Art degree from Marmara University, Fine Arts Institute, Cinema and Television Department, Cinema. After serving as the Head of the Department of Fashion and Textile Design at Istanbul Aydın University, Faculty of Fine Arts, for a long time, he received the title of Professor from the Faculty of Communication, Department of Radio, Television and Cinema of the same university. The artist, who continues his academic and art studies in the context of interdisciplinary art relations, made a big impact with his two separate personal experimental photography exhibitions titled Light Gate, which he opened at CERN (Conseil Européen Pour la Recherche Nucléaire) center in Geneva-Switzerland. The artist, who also has national and international group photography exhibitions and short films, gives theoretical and practical courses at the undergraduate, graduate, doctorate and Art Proficiency levels in fields such as "Photography", "Cinema", "Wearable Art" and "Cinema Costume Design".
Dr. Rabiya Saltik Duvan
She completed her undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral studies in the Department of Radio, Television, and Cinema at Marmara University. Her research areas include new media, digital platforms, new generation viewing habits, and new media psychology. She currently serves as the Deputy Head of the Department of Radio, Television, and Cinema at Istanbul Gelişim University Faculty of Fine Arts, and teaches courses such as Creation in Cinema and Television, Introduction to Cinema, Production Management Studio, and New Media.
Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Tugay Sarıkaya
Tugay Sarıkaya is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radio, Television and Cinema at the Faculty of Communication, İstinye University, where he also serves as Vice Dean of the Faculty of Communication. He received his bachelor’s degree in Radio, Television and Cinema from Kadir Has University in 2012, and completed his master’s degree in the New Media program at the same university in 2016 with a thesis entitled “Limited Effects of Social Media and Relevance of Opinion Leader Theory on the Arab Spring: The Case of Tunisia and Egypt.” In 2023, he earned his PhD in Media and Communication Studies from Istanbul Commerce University with a dissertation on the impact of virtual communities on the formation and reproduction of cultural memory, neighborhood identity, and culture. His research and publication interests include film history, cultural studies, virtual communities, memory studies, digital communities, and audience research.
Doç. Dr. Özgür İpek
Özgür İpek was born on 8 September 1986 in Kyrenia, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. He graduated from Kyrenia 19 Mayıs Turkish Maarif College and from the Department of Radio, Television and Cinema at Atatürk University, Faculty of Communication. He completed his master’s and doctoral studies in the Department of Radio, Television and Cinema at the Institute of Social Sciences, Istanbul University. He is the author of Between Images: On the Thinking Images of New Turkish Cinema (2019). He served as the editor of Cinema of Testimonies: On Documentary Cinema (Agora Kitaplığı, 2014), A Splinter in the Eye: Images of the Subaltern and Subalternity in New Turkish Cinema (Metis Publishing, 2016), and The Giraffe at Home (İthaki). He is also among the contributing authors of Flâneur Thought (Ayrıntı Publishing, 2012), Black Screen (Ayrıntı Publishing, 2014), Scholastic Fantasy (Ayrıntı Publishing, 2015), Journey to the End of the Film (Beta Publishing, 2016), Gender and Diversity Representation in Mass Media (IGI Global Press, 2019), International Perspectives on Feminism and Sexism in the Film Industry (IGI Global Press, 2019), and On the Edge of All Possibilities (Literatürk Publishing).
Hale Torun
Hale Torun (born July 7, 1972) completed her undergraduate studies in History at Marmara University. She received her master’s degree from Istanbul University, Department of Radio, Television and Cinema, with a thesis on the interpretation of history in historical documentary films, and earned her PhD from Marmara University, Department of Communication Sciences, with a dissertation on the production of fear in news texts. After beginning her professional career as a history teacher, she continued her academic career at Istanbul Kültür University, Yeni Yüzyıl University—where she also undertook administrative roles such as Head of Department—and Istanbul Aydın University. Her research focuses on visual semiotics, film history, cultural discourse analysis, gender studies, and communication. She has published articles in national and international peer-reviewed journals and presented papers at various academic conferences. In addition to her scholarly work, she is actively involved in applied arts projects as a playwright and theatre director, and teaches a wide range of courses including communication design, cultural and art studies, mythology, and political communication.
