Tarık Aktaş

Biography

Tarık Aktaş’ work and research in film explore the general nature of things and focus on both the struggle and harmony in everyday reality and memories. He sees human nature as the key that will eventually open up other realms for investigation.

His first feature film, Dead Horse Nebula, concentrates on a reality in which humans are seen as sensory devices. The film has been screened at the Istanbul Modern Museum of Art (2019); Freer Sackler Gallery, Washington, DC (2019); Istanbul Film Festival (2019); Ankara International Film Festival (2019); Spirit of Fire Film Festival, Khanty-Mansyisk, Russia (2019); Hong Kong International Film Festival (2019); International Film Festival Rotterdam (2019); Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Greece (2019); Mar Del Plata International Film Festival, Argentina (2018); AFI Fest, Los Angeles (2018); and Locarno Film Festival (2018). Among his shorts is Basiret (2017), an experimental film that is part of his upcoming solo multimedia exhibition Supersensible, which focuses on human perception and the act of creation.

Dead Horse Nebula has won a number of awards, including Best Debut Film, Ankara International Film Festival (2019) and Istanbul Film Festival (2019); Silver Taiga Award, Spirit of Fire Film Festival (2019); and Best Emerging Director Award (2018).

Aktaş presented a seminar titled On Content and Form: How to Expand Your Sources! at the Plato Art Gallery in Istanbul (2018). He was a jury member at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival (2019).

He holds a BA from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maltepe University, Istanbul (2010) and an MA from the Department of Cinema, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul (2019).

Born in 1982 in Schwäbisch Hall, Germany, he currently lives and works in Istanbul.

SAF participation:
Sharjah Film Platform (December 2019)