İlker SAVAŞKURT

Ilker Savaskurt is a director, writer, editor and musician. He studied Sinema and TV at Istanbul Yeditepe University. He also graduated from Texas Collin County Community College, Buisness Management. In music industry he has played in bands Altar and UCK Grind. He has organised many music and culture events all around Turkey. in 2006 he moved to live in Texas/USA . After his return from USA he continued his cinema career. Worked in projects with Sera Film Services for international adaptations of television shows. He directed advertisements for Haylazz Production Company.

In 2012 he met with producer Abbas Nokhasteh and together they worked on the Sulukule Volunteers Association project. For the Sulukule Hiphop theatre he shot music videos and a documentary called "rebellion on stage", which took part in Istanbul Biennial.

In 2015 Ilker completed his first feature length documentary "Ballad of Exiles - Yilmaz Guney". Filming took place in Istanbul and mainly France, where the documentary was set. It had a world premiere in the Rotterdam Film Festival. The documentary had screenings in the Istanbul Film Festival as well as in Madrid, Slovenia, the UK and Germany.

In 2016 for the second time Ilker took the prison genre and started the shooting of 'Groom's Block'. He had its premiere in the International Sofia Film Festival where it won the jury prize. The film participated in multiple festivals in North America and Europe, and had its Turkish premiere in Istanbul as part of a film festival.

In 2020 he directed “Reflection – Akis”, his second feature film. Premiered in New York Harlem International Film Festival and awarded for Best Foreign Film.