Bilkent students, alumni and faculty earned several awards at the 33rd International Adana Altın Koza (Golden Boll) Film Festival. Nehir Üstündağ (COMD ’26), now a master’s student in the Media and Visual Studies program, won the Best Experimental Film award in the National Student Films Competition for “Everything I Saw Before I Returned to Your Side” (Yanına Dönmeden Önce Gördüğüm Her Şey), which she wrote, directed, shot and co-edited. The film follows a dying mind as it dreams for the last time, the dream losing its shape as the mind decays. Üstündağ developed and processed the color and black-and-white Super 8 film herself, drawing on her work with celluloid at the Bilkent Media Archaeology Lab.
The short film “Uslu” won the Special Jury Prize. Its sound design and Stereo, 5.1 and Dolby Atmos mixes were completed at the COMD Creators Studio by faculty member Ufuk Önen and students Rüzgar Ulaş Tecelli, Öykü Oktay and Eren Kaya.
Bilkent alumna Pınar Yorgancıoğlu (COMD ’10)’s debut feature, “Karanlıkta Islık Çalanlar” (Whistlers in the Dark), won Best Screenplay—which she co-wrote with Emre Gülcan—and Best Music, for Alican Çamcı’s score, in the National Feature Film Competition. Yorgancıoğlu also shared the Film Directors Association (Film-Yön) Best Director Award with Ali Vatansever.
