Deniz Gamze Ergüven

She was born in Ankara (Turkey) in 1978, and received her cosmopolitan education in France, Turkey and the United States. She is a film buff and studied filmmaking at La Fémis in Paris after finishing her higher education of Literature and African History in Johannesburg. Her short film for graduation, ‘Bir Damla Su’, which she starred in, was shown at the Cinéfondation of the Cannes Festival and won a Leopardo del Mañana Award at the Locarno Festival. After graduating from La Fémis, she starting preparing for her debut with a feature film set in South Central Los Angeles and the riots in 1992. The project, entitled ‘Kings’, was selected by ‘Emergence’, the Cinéfondation workshop, and by the Sundance Script Laboratory, although it is was beaten by ‘Mustang’, a film whose script was created by this Turkish director herself and Alice Winocour during the summer of 2012. Filmography. 2006: “Bir damla su” (short), “Mon trajet préféré” (short). 2015: “Mustang”. (Catalogue Valladolid International Film Festival 2015)