Ceylan Özgün Özçelik
Biography
Born in 1980, in Turkey. Özçelik studied law at the Marmara University in Istanbul, but never practiced. After working as a text writer in TV channels and as a DJ in a radio station, started to produce, write and host a TV show on cinema called “En Heyecanlı Yeri”, which was aired for almost ten years. Add to that she produced and wrote four other culture-art TV programmes. For fourteen years, she had written film reviews for online and print media. A book of interviews and media memoirs called "Dikkat Çekim Var!” written by her, published in 2013. In between 2005-2011, she edited behind the scenes, cinema award videos, production company trailers and documentaries. Her short films have screened at various festivals including Bratislava Art and Festroia. Her feature film debut KAYGI/INFLAME, a thriller about memory and mass media, has made its world premiere at the 67. Berlinale Panorama and won Luna Gamechanger Award at South by Southwest (SXSW) where the film had its North American premiere. Inflame has screened more than 30 other festivals worldwide. Özçelik is currently developing her second feature 18+, which is a dark comedy about women and violence for quite some time now. 18+ was among the projects of Meetings On The Bridge and won the Visual Effects Award in 2017. Özçelik is an artist-in-residence for 2018 at Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.
Known For & Full Filmography3 Titles
Drama Series - 2020, 16 episodes • as Self
Dicle finds herself in an agency when she comes to Istanbul dreaming of becoming a filmmaker. There’s only place for stars, ego wars, greed, fame, money, hope and disappointment here. As Dicle struggles to exist in this glamorous world without losing her way... Her broken family ties start to bleed again. Her father who abandoned them before she was born is now one of the sharks of the industry and they are working in the same agency. And the magical lights of cinema start to shed light on Dicle’s first love.
Movie - 2025, 2h 15m • as Nurdan
Facing imminent eviction, an idealistic young photographer and her hapless roommate attempt to sell her work to galleries for the first time, embarking on a bumpy journey through the collapsing art market of Istanbul.
Movie - 2022, 2h 15m • as Herself
Dream Workers is an intimate and daring journey into women's creativity, dreams, and unexpected confrontations by life through the intertwined stories of eight women filmmakers and a village women's theatre group from Turkey. The conditions of urban and cultural gentrification, pandemic, and isolation that initially threaten the film become part of the film. Listening to the creation stories of these women directors, including the director of the documentary, the audience experiences their different ways of living life and making art under the contemporary socio-cultural dynamics of Turkey.