Preliminary Jury
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Asena Yıldırım was born in 1997 in Istanbul. She completed both her undergraduate and graduate studies in acting. She has worked as a stage actress in theatre productions and as an acting coach for television series and films. She completed her PhD/Proficiency in Arts in the Cinema and Television Department at Istanbul Beykent University. She continues her academic career in the Acting Department at Doğuş University.
“Sevim and Kiraz” is her first fiction short film, which she wrote and directed as part of her doctoral graduation thesis. With her debut short film, she has been selected for numerous competitions and has received several awards.
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Melike Tomris Önder received a scholarship to study English Philosophy and English Arts Management at Yeditepe University. She completed her film education through three certificate programs. During her student years, she worked for cinema and culture magazines, and served as an assistant at the university’s International Cultural Seminars, contributing to international relations activities.
After graduation, she carried out art management projects in various gallery exhibitions and wrote art-related articles. Since 2017, she has been organizing film analysis and discussion events in Yalova. She continues her work as an educator and also serves as a member of the Yalova Municipal Council. In addition, she is the newly appointed president of the Yalova branch of the Atatürkist Thought Association.
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Didem Tütüncü was born in İzmir in 1993. She completed her education in International Relations, Performing Arts, Cinema, and Advertising. She has held various roles in the fields of cinema and media. With her documentary Al Ula, filmed in Saudi Arabia, she became the first Turkish woman director to shoot a documentary in the Kingdom. Her films have been screened in more than 60 countries, and her short films and documentaries have received numerous awards on national and international platforms. Her work often focuses on in-depth themes such as culture, social structures, human experience, and the relationship between people and space. In recent years, she has been exploring hybrid forms of storytelling by integrating artificial intelligence into film production. She develops projects that blend live-action footage with AI-based visual generation, testing the practical applications of this emerging approach. Her AI-hybrid documentary At the Edge of Time and her short film Whisper of the Wind are among the first Turkish AI-assisted productions to receive awards at international festivals. These works have also been recognized among the most awarded AI projects of 2025. In 2026, she was honored with the “Profession Shaping the Future Award” by the Ankara İncek Rotaract Club.
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Ece Yirmibeş, who works in video art and photography and has produced work in music, serves on the organizing committees of various film and music festivals and continues her creative practice in these fields. She is also a member of the editorial board of SineFilozofi Journal and serves on the organizing committee of the International Symposium on Cinema and Philosophy as a coordinator.