JURY MEMBERS FOR THE 3rd YILMAZ GÜNEY SHORT FILM COMPETITION
Please click here to view the films in this competition
Azad Nasseh Ali ( Azad Kerkuki)
was born in 1964 in Kirkuk in Southern
Kurdistan. He attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Sulaymaniyah, studying theatre in 1981. In 1984, he moved to Denmark where he produced several works in theatre and music. In 1988, he moved to Moscow to study cinema and he obtained a masters degree from the VGIK Film School. Azad has made numerous short films, documen- taries and TV movies. His most recent work is a series of historical documen- taries on the Kurdish Liberation move- ment in Iraqi Kurdistan from 1914 – 1992.
Marie Olesen
Is an award-winning film & TV pro- ducer and factual journalist with a background in radio production. Marie set up Autonomi in 2002, a Glasgow-based production company with two business partners. Olesen has filmed across the world and produced current affairs, dramas and documen- taries for international audiences. She produced Kurdi (LKFF, 2009) and has a work-in-progress called Minefield. Both films feature filming in Kurdistan and directed by Doug Aubrey. Marie is also co-Founding Director of a video training and mentoring outfit called Di- versity Films.

Nazire Turan
was born in Siverek, a small town in North Kurdistan. She is currently work- ing as a cinema coordinator at Di- yarbakır Metropolitian Municipality. After she graduated from the Depart- ment of Chemistry at Dicle University, Nazire completed a film directing pro- gram at FAMU in the Czech Republic in 2009. Earlier this year she began studying in the Cinema and Media re- search programme at Bahcesehir Uni- versity in Istanbul. She has directed several short films and organised work- shops for young filmmakers. In 2009, she was Joint Coordinator of the Inter- national Conference on Kurdish Cin- ema jointly organised by Diyarbakir Metropolitan Municipality and Di- yarbakir Art centre.
Shiar Abdi
was born in 1973 in Zamar, South Kur- distan, Iraq. At the age of 20 he left his home in Syria for the Netherlands. In 2005 Shiar Abdi moved to Germany where he studied film direction. There he made several short films, which have been shown at many interna- tional festivals. In 2011 he completed his first feature film MESH (WALK- ING), which is one of the first films to be shot in the Kurdish language in Turkey.
Vida Salehi
was born in the city of Sanandaj in East Kurdistan (Iran). She started writing short stories at a very early age and was selected as best young short story writer in Iran for five consecutive years beginning in 1993. In addition to her writing career, Vida has written several film scripts, worked as a photographer for numerous films, and in 2009 she wrote a 20-part series for TV SANA, which was directed by Sattar Chamani- Gol. Vida Salehi has also starred in fea- ture films and is currently heading the Setak Film Distribution Company which distributes Kurdish movies around the globe. She is currently working on script for a film called The Cloudy Skies of Kirkuk, a movie which is planned to be shot in Kirkuk later this year.

