2017 juries

The international jury for the 2017 edition of Contact Student Film Festival awarded the following official prizes

Yaşar University Award 2017: Grand Prix for the Best Short Film

Fly My Love

Fly My Love

Eli Salameh

Lebanese University

Lebanon, 2016

15.50

Sony Award

Drush

Drush

Nils Janssens

LUCA School of Arts

Belgium, 2017

3.19

Böcek Yapım Award

7 Centimeters

7 Centimeters

Metehan Şereflioğlu

Dokuz Eylül University

Turkey, 2016

16.30

Senedit Award for Best Story

Lockjaw

Lockjaw

Kordian Kadziela

University of Silesia

Poland, 2016

30.00

Student Audience Award

Sex with a Monk and Other Stories

Sex with a Monk and Other Stories

Sounak Kar

Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute

India, 2017

30.55


Yves Thomas

Writer and Director

Currently the co-director of screenwriting department of La Fémis, Yves Thomas finished his higher education in business and literature. He has directed and written for television and cinema. He is the screenwriter for feature films such as Patricia Mazuy’s 2016 film Paul Sanchez est revenue!, and also Saint-Cyr (2010) and Touche pas aux soviets (2012). In addition to writing, he was consultant for numerous scripts. Yves Thomas was also a theater administrator, taught semiology at University Paris XIII and was editor / designer for several advertising agencies.

Melis Behlil

Academician and Film Critic

Melis Behlil is an Associate Professor of Cinema Studies and the Chair of Radio, Television and Cinema Department at Kadir Has University in Istanbul. She has also been a Research Affiliate at Stockholm University’s Institute of Turkish Studies and a Visiting Scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In addition to teaching and other academic duties, she writes film reviews for various publications, co-hosts a weekly radio show on Açik Radyo, and is a member of the Turkish Film Critics Association.

Oguz Peri

Producer

Graduated from Anadolu University’s Faculty of Communication Sciences. Since 1992, he has been engaged in many commercials and feature film productions. In 2007, he collaborated with Ömer Faruk Sorak in Böcek Yapim, where he pursues his career as a producer. He is a member of The Commercial Film Producers Association Board. He also has been giving production courses in different communication faculties for the last couple of years.

Ceylan Özgün Özçelik

Director, Writer and Producer

Born in 1980, in Turkey. Özçelik studied law at Marmara University in Istanbul, yet never practiced. Instead, she attended photography, cinematography, production and filmmaking workshops and took Adrienne Weiss’ Directing Actors classes. She produced and wrote for various culture-art TV programmes. She had been writing film reviews for online and print media for fourteen years. Her book of interviews and media memoirs called Dikkat Çekim Var! was published in 2013. In between 2005-2011, she was behind the scenes editing cinema award videos, production company trailers and documentaries. Her short films have screened at various festivals and her feature film debut KAYGI/INFLAME made its world premiere at the 67. Berlinale Panorama and won Luna Gamechanger Award at South by Southwest (SXSW). Özçelik is currently developing her second feature 18+, which is a dark comedy about women and violence.

Nilay Erdönmez

Actor, Director

Born in 1986 in Istanbul, Erdönmez completed both her undergraduate and master’s degree in Mimar Sinan University, majoring in theater. She has been a part of many theater productions both as an actor and as director. With her first on camera performance in Gözetleme Kulesi in 2012, she won the best-actress award in many national and international festivals. She has also appeared in television series Bir Zamanlar Osmanli: Kiyam, Sevdaluk, and Istanbullu Gelin. Her latest films are Bütün Saadetler Mümkündür and Mezarci. She is performing solo on stage in Garaj Istanbul this year as well, with one of last season’s favorite plays, Hafizasini Kaybeden Müzeden Bir Traktöre Mektuplar.