Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Nuri Bilge Ceylan — Biography

Nuri Bilge Ceylan (born 26 January 1959 in Istanbul) trained as an electrical-electronics engineer at Boğaziçi University before turning to filmmaking through a two-year cinema programme at Mimar Sinan University, and has since become the most internationally recognised Turkish director of his generation. He debuted with the short film Koza (1995) and, starting with his first feature Kasaba (1997), has seen almost every subsequent film compete at major festivals.

His Cannes record includes the Grand Prix for Distant (2002), Best Director for Three Monkeys (2008), another Grand Prix for Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011), and the Palme d'Or itself for Winter Sleep (2014) — making him only the second Turkish filmmaker to win cinema's top prize. Six of his films have been chosen as Turkey's submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature, and critics widely regard him as one of the defining directors of 21st-century cinema; he frequently collaborates with his wife, filmmaker and actress Ebru Ceylan.

Following his 2023 feature About Dry Grasses, Ceylan spent 2026 preparing a new film titled 'Yorgun Güneş' ('Tired Sun'), reportedly with a cast including Pınar Deniz, Osman Sonant and Altan Erkekli.