Pelin ESMER

Pelin Esmer was born in 1972 in Istanbul, Turkey. After she majored in sociology in Istanbul, she attended the cinema workshop of the Turkish director Yavuz Ozkan. She worked as a first assistant director in several of Turkish and foreign projects, including documentaries, features and commercials. She gave lectures about documentary film-making at Istanbul Kadir Has University in Istanbul. She created her own film company, Sinefilm, in 2005 and currently produces her own projects as an independent director and producer together with her colleagues. She has made two award-winning documentaries. Her first film, “The Collector” (2002) was screened in many festivals and received the Best Documentary Award at Rome Independent Films Festival. Her first feature documentary “The Play” was premiered in New Directors Competition Section in San Sebastian in 2005. It has been screened over 40 festivals around the world and received 11 international and 3 national awards including “The Best New Documentary Film-maker” award in Tribeca Film Festival, “The Best Mediterranean Documentary” award of CMCA and “The Best Documentary Film” award in Créteil Women Films Festival. The film was released in theatres and as a DVD in 2006 in Turkey. Both Pelin and her film have been acclaimed by both national and international critics among which are writers of Le Monde, Time-CNN, Variety, New York Magazine, Cinemascope and Senses of Cinema. She is working on the script of her first fiction film “K & Ali” that is about the relationship between an old passionate collector and his doorman.