Juries 2008

Fatih Akin was born in Hamburg in 1973 as son to Turkish Parents. He began studying Visual communications at the Hamburg College of Fine Arts in 1994. He directed his first full length feature film Short Sharp Shock in 1998. This film brings immediate success and several awards, including the Bronze Leopard at Locarno and the Bavarian Film Award for the Best Young Director. It was followed by the road movie In July I'm Juli in 2000, the one-hour documentary Wir haben vergessen zurückzukehren in 2001, the emigration drama Solino in 2002 and his Golden Bear winning last feature film Head-On in 2004. In 2003 he founded his film production company Corazón International. In 2007, The Edge of Heaven presented in Competition at the Festival de Cannes is awarded the Best Screenplay Award. Fatih Akin today works as a scriptwriter, director and producer and occasionally also as an actor. He lives in Hamburg.