Crew
Hakan Erkılıç/Project Coordinator
He has been working in Mersin University since 2004. His field of study involves Turkish cinema, cinema and ideology, mode of production/economic structure of cinema, digital cinema, documentary and film festivals. He has articles and papers about these subjects in various journals and books. He is the General Director of Atıf Yılmaz Short Film Festival (Mersin/Turkey). He recently completed a three-year funded by TUBITAK project titled "Film Festivals in Turkey: Structure, Economy, Organisation and Audience Profile (Case Study of Antalya, Adana, Istanbul and Ankara Film Festivals)". After projecting and establishing the Mersin Film Office, he has been working as its consultant.
e-mail: erkilichakan@gmail.com
Senem Duruel Erkılıç/Researchers
She was born in İstanbul. She completed her undergraduate study in Mimar Sinan University (İstanbul) Film and TV Department in 1993. She got her master’s degree from Chapman University (CA, USA) in 1997. She performed her competence in art in Mimar Sinan University Film and TV field. She became associate professor in 2008, and professor in 2013. Her field of study involves Turkish cinema, cinema-history-memory relationship and documentary film. She has articles and papers about these subjects in various journals and books. She is the author of History and Memory in Turkish Cinema (2014). She gives lectures on Turkish Cinema, Constructing History and Memory in Film at graduate level. She has recently worked on a compeleted project titled “Film Festivals in Turkey: Structure, Economy, Organization and Audience Profile (Case Study of the Film Festivals of Antalya, Adana, Istanbul, and Ankara)” which is funded by TUBITAK.
e-mail: sduruelerkilic@gmail.comHasan Akbulut/Researchers
He completed his undergraduate, graduate and doctoral studies at Ankara University. Working on cinema, drama and arts therapies, Akbulut’s recent studies focus on cinema audience, transnational film reception practices, and cinema therapy. He is the author of books titled Reading Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Cinema: Narrative, Time, Space, Melodrama Befits Women: The Image of Women in Turkish Melodrama Films, Egg: Journey to the Spirit (with Seçil Büker), Melodramatic Imagination, and Lifting the Curtain from Yeşilçam to New Turkish Cinema: Narrative and Criticism in Films (with Ruken Öztük). Akbulut, who has many national and international publications, is a member of the editorial board of sinecine: the journal of cinema studies, and still works as a professor at Istanbul University, Faculty of Communication, Department of Radio-Television and Cinema. Akbulut, who has carried out drama workshops with children, adults and the elderly in many projects for different ages and groups, currently conducts art therapy and drama therapy workshops that benefit from the healing power of art.
e-mail: hakbulut75@gmail.comMelis Behlil/Researchers
Melis Behlil is a Professor at the Radio, Television and Cinema Department at Kadir Has University in Istanbul, Turkey. She has been a Visiting Scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Research Associate at Stockholm University, and a founding member of European Network for Cinema and Media Studies (NECS). She recently completed a three-year funded project titled "Positioning the Spectator in Cinematic Virtual Reality,” and is currently the country coordinator for the Horizon project “REBOOT: Reviving, Boosting, Optimising and Transforming European Film Competitiveness.” She has published extensively on the contemporary Turkish film and television industry, as well as transnational Hollywood. In addition to teaching and other academic duties, she writes film reviews for various publications, co-hosts a weekly radio show, and is a member of the Turkish Film Critics Association and FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics).
e-mail: melisb@khas.edu.trS. Serhat Serter/Researchers
Assoc. Prof. Dr. S. Serhat Serter graduated from Anadolu University, Faculty of Communication Sciences, Department of Cinema-Television in 1996 and completed his master’s and doctorate in the same department. Serter, who continues his professional life at the faculty he graduated from, has also been the director of Eskişehir International Film Festival since 1998. Serter has published articles in English and Turkish and has edited two books on Turkish Cinema and Star Wars films. The revised version of his book on Star Wars cinema was re-published in the UK in 2021. Serter, who attaches importance to interdisciplinary cooperation, has made projects and documentary films to benefit disadvantaged groups as a representative of his field of science.
e-mail: ssserter@anadolu.edu.trNeşe Öztemir Hazan/Scholarship Holders
She completed her undergraduate education at Galatasaray University's Department of Sociology and then graduated from the university's master's programme in media and communication studies. At Toulouse Jean-Jaurès University, she completed the ALLPH@ (Art, Literature, Language, Philosophy, Communication) PhD programme on "Gender Scene: Turkish TV Series and Audience: The Case of Poyraz Karayel". She worked as a research assistant at Okan University, Department of Cinema and Television, for five years. In addition to her studies on gender-orientated film and television representations, she took part in various projects in the field of audience research. Most recently, she worked at the Department of Radio, TV and Cinema at Kadir Has University for TÜBİTAK 3501 "Women On Screen And Behind The Camera: A Contemporary Outlook (2017-2021) To Representation And Labour Of Women In Film And TV Industries In Turkey" and "Positioning The Spectator in Cinematic Virtual Reality" as a postdoctoral researcher in TÜBİTAK 1001 projects.
e-mail: neseoztemir@gmail.comSena Öndün Sivas/Scholarship Holders
Sena Öndün Sivas graduated from the Department of Sociology at Galatasaray University in 2020. In the same year, she began her MA in the Film and Television program at Kadir Has University. Her thesis, titled “Arthouse Cinema Experience and Changing Practices: A Case Study on Kadıköy Cinema,” was supported by TÜBİTAK’s 1002-A Short term Support Module. Since 2021, she has been working as a research assistant in the Department of Management of Performing Arts at Istanbul Bilgi University. She is also pursuing her PhD in the Communication Studies program at Kadir Has University. Her research focuses on audience practices, the experience of cinemagoing, and arthouse cinema. Her academic interests include cinema venues in the urban context, the role of audiences in urban memory, and the spatial relationship between cinema and its audience. She is currently a scholar in the TÜBİTAK-funded research project “Film Audience in the 100th Anniversary of the Republic.”
e-mail: senaondun@gmail.comErhan Türküm/Scholarship Holders
Erhan Türküm completed his undergraduate education in the Department of Radio, Television andCinema at Marmara University in 2019. He received his M.A. degree in Cinema from the Institute ofSocial Sciences at Marmara University in 2023, with a thesis entitled “Engin Ayça Cinema.” In thesame year, he commenced his doctoral studies in the Radio, Television and Cinema Programme at the Institute of Social Sciences, Istanbul University. Between 2021 and 2025, he worked as a researchassistant in the Radio, Television and Cinema departments of Istanbul Topkapı University, Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University, and Istanbul University. In 2025, he was appointed as a research assistant in the Department of Radio, Television and Cinema at Marmara University. He has been a member of the editorial board of Filmvisio, an academic journal of cinema studies published by Istanbul University. He wrote academic studies on director cinema. He continues his academic studies in the fields of audience studies in cinema and Turkish cinema.
e-mail: erhanturkum@hotmail.com