FilmAmed Film Fund Jury

On this page you can find the Film Fund Jury members of the FilmAmed Documentary Film Festival along with their short biographies.

Ayşe Çetinbaş

Producer

Born in 1979 in Germany, Ayşe Çetinbaş completed her BA in Economics at Istanbul University and received her MA in European Public Policy at Greenwich University.

Upon returning to Turkey she worked at various national and international documentary film productions.

Between 2008-2014 she served as a member of the executive board of International 1001 Documentary Film Festival held by BSB (Association of Documentary Filmmakers in Turkey).

She worked as a fixer and local producer for foreign media.

She co-founded Surela Film Production with Çayan Demirel in 2008 and produced ‘Prison Nr.5: 1980-84’ (2009), ‘My Child’ (2013), ‘Dr.Şivan’ (2013), ‘North’ (2015).

Her first documentary as director was ‘Yıldız Alpar: From Bedii Raks Till Today’ (2011), and she recently finished her second feature documentary ‘KardeşTürküler’ (Songs of Fraternity) in 2025.

Elif Ergezen

Documentary Film Director

After graduating from Galatasaray University’s Faculty of Communications, Ergezen finished her master’s degree in cinema at Sorbonne University.

She is a documentary film director.

She has also been working in editing processes of various films and taking part in advisory committees at various festivals.

After working as a project manager at Boğaziçi University Mithat Alam Film Center for 16 years; she currently serves as the general coordinator of Sinematek Istanbul.

She has also been giving workshops on film and philosophy for children (P4C).

And she wrote a children’sbook named ‘Evro’.

İlham Bakır

Director/Writer

He studied literature, cinema and theater at various universities in Izmir.

He writes short stories, plays and screenplays.

His short stories have been published in magazines and book anthologies.

He began working on films at the Mesopotamia Cultural Center (NÇM).

He has directed numerous short films and documentaries.

He continued his film studies and worked as a trainer of cinema courses at the Cegerxwin Art Academy and the Middle East Film Academy.

His latest short film, “Sounds and Locks” has been featured in numerous international festivals and has won many awards.

He has faced numerous investigations and prison sentences due to his articles in the Özgür Gündem, Yeni Yaşam, and Yeni Özgür Politika newspapers.

He continues to write for these newspapers. In 2023, he was forced to flee the country due to a prison sentence.

He currently resides in London and conducts film studies and teaches film courses at the Kurdish Institute in London.

Metin Ewr

Screenwriter/Director

He is from Amed.

After working as a representative for the Azadiya Welat newspaper in Adana for two years, Ewr began working in culture and arts at the Mesopotamia Cultural Center (NÇM).

He published a language and literature magazine called Nûza under the auspices of the Adana branch of NÇM and served as its editor.

He wrote theater scripts and directed plays for the Nûpelda Theater Group.

Some of the plays he staged include Paşom, Fikriya, Reş an jî Şer, Name and Mars.

He was involved in the founding of TZP-Kurdî and served as spokesperson for Çukurova for a period of time.

In 2009, he returned to Amed and began working in the field of cinema.

He has served on the executive committees of three festivals and has been a jury member at several international film festivals and Kurdish film festivals.

He has been part of the screenwriting teams for the TV series Ax û Jiyan, Ref and Malîno, as well as the feature film 14 July.

His most recent work is the short film Çerx, which he wrote and directed.

Övgü Gökçe

Film Critic/Researcher

Övgü Gökçe graduated from Boğaziçi University, Department of Philosophy, and worked as a research assistant at Istanbul Bilgi University, Department of Cinema-TV for five years.

She earned her master’s degree with a thesis on narration in post-revolutionary Iranian cinema and pursued doctoral studies in cinema and aesthetics at Ohio University.

She has taught cinema history, visual culture, Turkish and international cinemas at various universities.

A member of Altyazı Cinema Magazine since 2001, she has served as editorial board member, film critic, and editor.

Between 2011 and 2023, she directed interdisciplinary art programs at Diyarbakır Arts Center.

She continues to contributede signing cinema projects and seminars at Altyazı Cinema Association.

Her interests include international cinemas, melodrama, film aesthetics, documentary, experimental film and video essays.