Aslı Özge

Aslı Özge — Biography

After graduating in cinema and television from Marmara University's Faculty of Fine Arts, Aslı Özge moved to Berlin, where she studied philosophy. Her student short film Capital C won prizes at several festivals, and in 2002 she was named Turkey's winner in the cultural achievement category of the TOYP – The Outstanding Young Persons of the World award. With support from the German Film and Television Academy and ZDF/3sat, and through EEE Produktion, a company she formed with cinematographer Emre Erkmen and screenwriter Dagmar Gabler, she made her first feature, Ein Bisschen April (2003), which was never released in Turkey. In 2005 she completed the documentary Hesperos'un Çömezleri in Istanbul, and her film Soluksuz won the Balkan Fund Script Development Award at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. She wrote and directed Men on the Bridge (2009), which shared the Best Film prize with a film by Pelin Esmer at the Adana Golden Boll Film Festival and brought her international recognition. Continuing to work between Turkey and Germany, she followed Lifelong and All of a Sudden with the 2020 mini-series Karanlık Şehir, presented at the Berlin Film Festival. Her 2024 film Faruk won the FIPRESCI prize at the 74th Berlinale, and she continues to work on European co-productions.