Derya Durmaz studied Economy, Human Rights Law and Acting. She received “Armenia Turkey Cinema Platform’s Best Project Award” and “Turkish Ministry of Culture’s Production Support” with her 1st short film, ZIAZAN. Ziazan participated in more than 40 festivals in 21 countries, won 11 awards and received full coverage in Washington Post and Monocle magazine. Her 2nd short film “Mother Virgin No More / Gri Bolge” was selected to the “65th Berlinale Generation 14plus Short Film Competition”. The film participated in more than 20 festivals in 12 countries since then and won 2 awards. Both films’ world sales and distribution were acquired by Kurz Film Agentur Hamburg.
Derya Durmaz is one of the 20 filmmakers selected to participate in the “International Toronto Film Festival’s TALENT LAB 2015”. She was selected to participate in the “BERLINALE TALENTS 2016” program and be one of 3 Berlinale Talents directors selected to be portrayed at the Deutsche Welle Arts.21 speciale ‘Close-up 2016 – How young filmmakers see the world’. With her debut feature film project in development “The Bus To Amerika”, Durmaz is also one of 8 filmmakers selected to the “First Films First, Goethe Institute Young Directors Academy South East Europe 2016”.
As an actress she took part in more than 10 feature films – such as the “Blue Wave” which competed in 64th Berlinale – and many TV productions. She works with the Persona Theater from Athens and took part in their international productions in Greece, Turkey and Iran. In line with her degree in human rights law, she also takes part in NGO projects related to human rights, refugee rights, youth and arts. Recently she coordinated the EU funded “Project for Human Rights and Film Making for Children” and currently she is a consultant to the EU Human Rights Film Days organized by the EU Delegation to Turkey.
