Meta Akkuş

Meta Akkuş — Biography

Meta Akkuş is a filmmaker born in Turkey and raised in Paris who works as a director, screenwriter, producer and author. Known first for commercials and music videos, she made her feature debut with the fantasy family film Bir Dilek Tut (Make A Wish, 2022), shot in Mardin; she wrote, produced and directed it.

She came to directing at school, when her history teacher had her make a documentary about students deported from her school to concentration camps in 1940. In high school she wrote and directed her first play, Le Temps N'Existe Pas, and at 18 she made her first short, La Solitude. In London she studied at Panico Film and Central Saint Martins, worked on the set of The World Is Not Enough, joined the crew of a Terry Gilliam commercial and learned editing in Soho. Her 35 mm short Unsatisfaction was bought by Canal+. BBD Productions in Paris signed her as one of three exclusive commercial directors alongside Luc Besson and Jean-Paul Goude, and she made ads for Chanel, Evian, Mini Cooper, Paşabahçe, BP and Pınar. She directed four music videos for Kıraç, and Senden Başka was nominated at the 2005 Kral TV Video Music Awards. She directed the interview scenes of the documentary Türk Pasaportu and published the books Aşktan Ötürü (2016) and Abrakadabra (2018).

Shooting Bir Dilek Tut took four years; the film was a semi-finalist at the Rhode Island International Film Festival and was shown in US cinemas in 2024.