Fatih Akin was born in Hamburg in 1973 as son to Turkish Parents. He began studying Visual communications at the Hamburg College of Fine Arts in 1994.
He directed his first full length feature film Short Sharp Shock (Kurz und Schmerzlos) in 1998. This film brings immediate success and several awards, including the Bronze Leopard at Locarno and the Bavarian Film Award (Best Young Director).
It was followed in 2000 by the road movie In July I'm Juli, the one-hour documentary Wir haben vergessen zurückzukehren (2001), the emigration drama Solino (2002) and his award-winning last feature film Head-On (Gegen dieWand) (2004). In 2003 he founded the film production company Corazon International.
Fatih Akin today works as a scriptwriter, director and producer and occasionally also as an actor. He lives in Hamburg.
Jury attendance
- President Un Certain Regard, 2008
- Member Feature films, 2005