Jury
Andreas Sinanos
Andreas Sinanos was born in Greece and studied cinematography at the Stavrakos Film School in Athens. He is currently a member of the European Film Academy (EFA), the Association Française des Directeurs de la Photographie Cinématographique (AFC), and the Greek Society of Cinematographers (GSC).
He has worked as a cinematographer on numerous feature films with acclaimed directors including Theo Angelopoulos, Michael Cacoyannis, Chris Marker, Hiner Saleem, Jeanine Meerapfel, Selma Bakar, Tayfun Pirselimoğlu, Özcan Alper, Semih Kaplanoğlu, and Murat Pay.
He received the Best Cinematography Award from the Greek Ministry of Culture for The Crossing, directed by Vassiliki Iliopoulou, and True Beauty, directed by Yiannis Diamantopoulos.
He also received Thessaloniki Film Festival Awards for Olga Robards by Christos Vacalopoulos, Equinox by Nikos Cornelios, and The Master of Shadows by Lefteris Xanthopoulos.
For Özcan Alper’s Memories of the Wind, he received the Best Cinematography Awards at the Antalya Film Festival and from SİYAD (Turkish Film Critics Association). He also received a SİYAD Award for Tayfun Pirselimoğlu’s The Edge of the Road, and Best Cinematography Awards at the Malatya, Kayseri, and Bosphorus Film Festivals for Murat Pay’s The Mute.
Sinanos collaborated extensively with Theo Angelopoulos on The Suspended Step of the Stork, Ulysses’ Gaze, Eternity and a Day, The Weeping Meadow—for which he received an EFA Best Cinematography nomination—Chacun son cinéma (three-minute segment), The Dust of Time, and The Other Sea, which remained unfinished.
Arzu Yanardağ
Arzu Yanardağ was born in Istanbul in 1977 and began her career as a model. During her time modeling with Başak Gürsoy Agency, she appeared in numerous commercials, gaining her first experience in front of the camera.
She made her acting debut in 1997 with the television series Unutabilsem, broadcast on Kanal D. She later studied acting at the Müjdat Gezen Art Center. In 1998, she made her feature film debut with Asansör. She began her stage career at the Bahçelievler Municipality Theatre and has since taken part in numerous projects across film, television, and theatre.
Alongside her artistic work, Yanardağ has also been actively involved in social responsibility projects and has brought several of her own screenplays to life. In the 2022 film Öldüm Bittim, she worked both as an actress and screenwriter.
Arzu Yanardağ continues to work actively as an actress, presenter, writer, and acting instructor. She is also an advocate for animal rights and a mother of one daughter.
Bassam Alasad
Bassam Alasad is a Jordanian producer and cultural organizer, currently working as Managing Director at CMS Gulf. Since 2021 he serves as the Head of Industry at the Amman International Film Festival - Awal Film (AIFF). In 2017, Bassam co-founded Greener Screen, where he works to embed sustainability into screen production through consulting, tools, and capacity-building. Bassam has produced and co-produced films such as "Born a King" and "Champions." Most recently, he co-produced the Jordanian film "Sink," directed by Zain Duraie, and is producing the upcoming Jordanian film "Jo Of Montreal" by Ameen Nayfeh, alongside several other projects currently in development.
Ece Özdikici
Ece Özdikici is a Turkish actress born in İzmir. She graduated from the Painting Department of İzmir Anatolian Fine Arts High School and later from the Acting Department of the Theatre Main Art Branch at the Mimar Sinan University State Conservatory. She completed her master's degree in the Film and Drama Program at Kadir Has University.
Her theatre career includes performances with Dostlar Theatre, Bakırköy Municipal Theatres, Istanbul State Theatre, Istanbul City Theatres, and various private theatre companies. Her performances in The Wave and Romeo and Juliet earned her several young talent awards, including recognition from the Afife Jale Awards, Lions Clubs, and the International Association of Theatre Critics. She was also nominated for the Sadri Alışık Best Actress Award.
On television, she has appeared in popular series including Sır Gibi, Küçük Hanımefendi, Dila Hanım, Cinayet, Poyraz Karayel, and Kadın.
Her film credits include That Good Night, Sizi Seviyorum, Mor Ufuklar, and Koza. For her performance as Bahar in Mor Ufuklar, she received the Best Supporting Actress Award at the Madrid International Film Festival in 2017.
In addition to her acting career, Ece Özdikici has also worked extensively as a voice artist in commercials, films, animation, and television productions.
Levent Türkan
Levent Türkan was born in Nuremberg in 1975. He graduated from the Department of Cinema and Television at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Dokuz Eylül University.
Combining the disciplines of directing and cinematography, Türkan explores new forms of cinematic expression that move beyond conventional narrative structures in his artistic practice. Throughout his career, he has achieved both national and international recognition in the fields of cinema and video art.
With his short film Jamais Vu (2016), for which he undertook the entire creative process, he received the FIPRESCI Award at the 35th Istanbul Film Festival.
The documentary Mimaroğlu: The Robinson of Manhattan Island (2020), for which he served as cinematographer, received awards from SİYAD, the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, and the Istanbul Film Festival.
He was also awarded the Jury Special Award at Poland’s Three Crowns – Lesser Poland Film Awards for his screenplay Kuzu (A Tale for Memo).
Alongside his work in the film industry, Türkan continues to produce photography and video art. His works have been presented in both solo and group exhibitions.
Levent Türkan currently lives and works in Istanbul.
Luca Fortino
Film Director & Screenwriter | Italy
Born in Cosenza, Italy, in 1975, Luca Fortino trained in Film Directing at Perla Cinematografica in Rome, developing a distinctive authorial approach focused on social issues and a cinema that combines civic engagement with strong storytelling.
After directing several short films, he wrote and directed Prima del buio, a socially engaged work that attracted the attention of the Italian Ministry of Education, which subsequently involved him in a national campaign against alcohol abuse.
In 2011, he wrote and directed the feature film Tienimi Stretto, winner of Best Film and Best Director at the International Epizephiry Film Festival. In 2012, the film received the prestigious Italian d’ESSAI recognition from MIBACT for its quality and innovation. The film also attracted interest in the United States, including that of Louis DiGiaimo, a prominent international casting director and film professional associated with landmark productions such as The Godfather, The Exorcist, Gladiator and Donnie Brasco.
In 2014, Fortino directed Silent Night, a humanitarian film project included in the Cannes Marché du Film catalogue in 2015. He later expanded his work into television, directing docu-reality series for SKY. In 2020, he wrote The Happiness Theory (Il teorema della felicità), an Italian-Canadian co-production presented at Cannes in 2022 and subsequently released in Italy and Canada.
In 2025, he directed the socially engaged short film The Woman of the Butterflies, starring Simona Cavallari and Enrico Lo Verso.
His cinema combines authorial vision, social awareness and an international outlook, often transforming production constraints into creative opportunities.
Ringailė Leščinskienė
An experienced international film producer active in Georgia, Lithuania and Ukraine since 2008. She holds a master’s in Art Management with a focus on Cinema from the Lithuanian Academy of Theatre and Music and is a member of the Lithuanian Film Producers Association. Her career bridges creative documentary filmmaking, international co-productions, and high-end commercial work. Her work has received notable recognition, including three Cannes Lions awards at the International Festival of Creativity in Cannes and one Silver Dolphin at the Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards. Ringailė is also alumni of EsoDoc’25, Jihlava Emerging Producers’26, EuroDoc’26 part in Tallin, CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator - Digital Empowerment’26 online sessions. She was a mentor in Lithuanian Shorts film festival, contributes to international festival juries and industry events, and lectures in film communication at Vilnius Tech University.
Senad Šahmanović
Senad Šahmanović is a Montenegrin film and television director. He completed his undergraduate and specialist studies in Film and Television Directing at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Cetinje. In addition to his work as an auteur, he has worked as an assistant director in both film and theatre and has participated in numerous international workshops and training programmes, including Berlinale Talents, Sarajevo Talent Campus, NISI MASA, MIDPOINT, and Balkan Documentary Discovery.
His short films have been screened at more than 70 international film festivals, including the Tampere Film Festival, the Odense International Film Festival, and the Busan International Short Film Festival. They have received numerous awards, including the Grand Prix for Best Short Film at the Drama International Short Film Festival in Greece.
Since 2015, he has worked as a director at Radio and Television of Montenegro, where he has directed a wide range of documentary and fiction-based productions. In 2021, he was appointed Editor of the Cultural and Arts Programme at TVCG. During his tenure, numerous cultural, artistic, documentary, music, and fiction programmes have been produced.
His debut feature film, Sirin, premiered at the Sarajevo Film Festival and was subsequently screened at numerous international festivals. The film received two awards and was selected as Montenegro’s official submission for the Best International Feature Film category at the 96th Academy Awards in 2024.
His second fiction project, The Heart of the Ponton — a hybrid feature film and television series — was successfully presented at festivals, in cinemas, and on television. The film received the Grand Golden Mimosa for Best Actor at the Herceg Novi Film Festival.
His feature-length documentary Vude, You Won!, about Dušan Vukotić, the only Yugoslav filmmaker to have won an Academy Award, was selected for numerous international film festivals. It was broadcast by RTCG, HRT, and RTS and received widespread critical acclaim.
Ziad Kalthoum
Filmmaker & Scriptwriter & Film Consultant
Ziad Kalthoum is a Syrian filmmaker currently living in Berlin. He was born in Homs in 1981. In first documentary OH MY HEART (2009) he portrayed a group of Kurdish women, who have chosen to live in a society without men. The film was banned from screening in Syria due to political reasons. In 2012, during the outbreak of the Syrian revolution, he began working on his first feature film THE IMMORTAL SERGEANT while serving a compulsory military service. The film had its premiere at the Locarno Film Festival in 2014. In 2015, he won the BBC Arabic Festival in the ‘Best Feature Documentary’ category. Refusing to fight his own people, he deserted from the Syrian Army in 2013 and fled to Beirut where he started to work on TASTE OF CEMENT. The film has been traveling to festivals around the world and has won various awards, among them the Golden Sesterce for Best Feature Documentary at Visions du Réel in 2017 and nominated to the German Academy Awards 2018.
Feature film in progress LAST TRIP 90min.
Preliminary Selection Committee
Semih Salman
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Semih Salman completed his undergraduate studies in the Department of Radio, Television and Cinema at the Faculty of Communication, Ege University, between 2008 and 2013. He completed his graduate studies in the Department of Radio, Television and Cinema at the Institute of Social Sciences, Ege University. He continues his academic and professional work in the fields of cinema, media, and digital storytelling.
Salman is the author of The Relationship Between Editing and Narrative in Cinema, Principles of Editing: Theory, Techniques, and Applications, and Cinema and Photography: The Evolution of Visual Narrative. He has served as a co-researcher in European Union projects and has published articles, conference papers, and book chapters at both national and international levels. Alongside his academic work, he has professionally contributed to documentary, short film, television series, advertising, and promotional film projects in the fields of editing, production, and directing.
Since 2025, Salman has been a faculty member at Ege University, where he continues his teaching, research, and publishing activities in areas including film editing, screenwriting, film theory, world cinema history, Turkish cinema, animation, new media, film criticism, digital cinema, digital game design, and interactive storytelling.
Semra Keleş
Semra Keleş, completed her undergraduate degree in the Department of Radio, Television and Cinema at the Faculty of Communication, Gazi University, in 2011. She received her Master’s degree in the Department of Radio, Television and Cinema at Marmara University’s Institute of Social Sciences in 2015, with her thesis titled “Violence in Turkish Cinema after 2000.”
She completed her PhD at Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University in 2023 with her dissertation titled “Marriage in Turkish Cinema (1960–1980) within the Framework of Structure and Agency.”
Keleş has been teaching courses on cinema and video at İzmir University of Economics since 2016. She has also served on the organizing committees of the International Symposium on Cinema and Philosophy and the International Philosophical Films Festival.
Alongside her academic research, Keleş has contributed to various short film, documentary, television series, and video art projects.
Zuhal Ergün
Zuhal Ergün continues her academic work in the Department of Radio, Television and Cinema at the Faculty of Communication, Kastamonu University. She completed her undergraduate studies in the Department of Radio, Television and Cinema at the Faculty of Communication, Atatürk University. She received her master’s degree from the Department of Radio, Television and Cinema at the Institute of Social Sciences, Atatürk University, and completed her PhD in the Basic Communication Sciences program at the same institute.
Ergün’s academic research focuses on digital media, new communication technologies, social media, media ethics, digital culture, popular culture, cinema studies, film analysis, and digital literacy. Her particular research interests include the relationship between cinema and philosophy, identity and ontology in modern cinema, digitalization, and representations of artificial intelligence.
In her master’s thesis, she examined the transition from face-to-face communication to mass communication through the example of the television program Gözüm Sende. In her doctoral research, she investigated the extent to which Karl Jaspers’ forms of communication are realized within social media environments, in the context of Generations X, Y, and Z.
In addition to her academic career, Ergün has also worked in the fields of media and corporate communication. She completed an internship at the News Department of the TRT General Directorate and worked in media, marketing, and public relations during the Erzurum 2011 Winter Universiade and the Mersin 2013 Mediterranean Games. She also worked as a press officer and reporter at the Press, Publication and Public Relations Directorate of Yakutiye Municipality in Erzurum.
Festival director
Mehmet Oflazoğlu
Mehmet Oflazoğlu is a Turkish documentary photographer, cultural manager, and founder and director of the Antakya International Film Festival.
He began his journey in photography during his student years with an analogue camera inherited from his grandfather. In 1989, he joined IFSAK (Istanbul Photography and Cinema Amateurs Association), where he further developed his interest in photography and cinema.
Oflazoğlu has presented his documentary photography work in solo and group exhibitions, participated in international art events and biennials, and served as a jury member in photography competitions.
In 2009, he founded Fotofilm Art Center, followed by the Ansam Culture Association in 2015. He is the founder and director of the Antakya International Film Festival, where he has developed a vision to position Antakya as a meeting point for Mediterranean cinema.
His current work focuses on cultural heritage, collective memory, city identity, and human stories. Through initiatives such as the Orontes Film Lab, he works to support emerging filmmakers, encourage international co-productions, and strengthen cultural dialogue across the Mediterranean.
Mehmet Oflazoğlu continues to serve on juries at national and international film festivals and works to develop new cultural and cinematic collaborations between Türkiye and the international film community.
