Alumni Profiles
Our alumni Ozan B. Peynirci
Graduation year 2017
Who is he? What is he doing now?
Ozan Peynirci graduated from the Cinema and Digital Media department in 2017. He began his career in Istanbul, working as an editor for two years. During this time, he contributed to various projects, including music videos for prominent artists, fiction films, and documentaries. Later, he returned to Izmir and continued producing independent visual works.
In 2020, he entered the gaming industry by joining Ruby Game Studio. Until 2024, he worked as a Marketing Artist at Ruby Game Studio, creating 2D and 3D digital visual advertisements at an international level. Currently, Ozan continues his career as a Motion Graphic Designer at Dream Games, one of Turkey's and the world's leading gaming companies. His role involves working with Blender, After Effects, and other 3D visual production tools.
Our alumni Onur Erdurak
Graduation year 2019
Who is he? What is he doing now?
Onur Erdurak graduated from Izmir University of Economics, Department of Cinema and Digital Media. In December 2017, he completed the short film "Stranded", which he wrote, directed and cinematographed by Canberk Günay. "Stranded" was selected for the Cannes Film Festival Short Film Corner in 2018.
Onur continues his education as a Fulbright Scholar at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in Los Angeles, where he is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Film Production.
Through his personal project Blendreams, he shares his animation and cinematic works on social media and produces projects in collaboration with leading companies in the industry such as KitBash3D, Reallusion, Polycam, Rokoko and Razer.
IUE Department of Cinema and Digital Media Student Onur Erdurak at the 71st Cannes Film Festival: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnqdZQPLp3o
Our alumni Berhan Mete Arkın
Graduation year 2019
Who is he? What is he doing now?
Berhan Mete Arkın studied in the Cinema and Digital Media program at İzmir University of Economics. In 2017, together with his classmates Murat Yılmaz and Ecem İlkyaz, he realized the documentary project "Çıkmaz Şehir: İzmir" (Dead-End City: İzmir). This project was a finalist at the Istanbul Urban Transformation Film Festival and was also screened at the International Labour Film Festival. He graduated in 2019 with his psychological-thriller short film "Dilemma". The film was screened at various festivals and attracted significant attention.
After graduating, he worked for three years in Istanbul’s film and television industry as a camera and assistant director on projects such as "10 Bin Adım" (10 Thousand Steps), "Uysallar" (The Uysals), and "Şahsiyet" (Persona). In 2024, to deepen his knowledge in cinema, he began pursuing a master’s degree in Film at the School of Arts, University of Nova Gorica, Slovenia. Berhan Mete Arkın aims to continue his passion for cinema by creating new projects.
Wrote the Script, Won the Award in Zagreb: https://www.ieu.edu.tr/en/news/type/read/id/9546
Our alumni Çağıl Saydam
Graduation year: 2020
Who is she? What is she doing now?
After graduating from the Cinema and Digital Media Department at IUE, Çağıl Saydam received the Best Experimental Student Film Award at the 27th International Adana Golden Boll Film Festival with her graduation project "61 St No 4". Throughout her university years, Çağıl was actively involved in theater. In 2022, together with the Mukri Collective they established in İzmir, she completed a feature-length film titled "Mutluluğun Kristali (The Crystal of Happiness)". In the same year, she worked as the director of photography on an interactive online project called "Cumartesi Gecesi (Saturday Night)".
In 2021, Çağıl co-directed "Her Şey Sinirimi Bozuyor (Everything Unnerves Me)", a short film in the experimental fetish gore genre, with Hazal Bayar, also taking on the roles of sound designer and cinematographer. In 2022, she created the documentaries "Ruhların Piramidi ve Yaşlı Kalpler (The Pyramid of Souls and Aged Hearts)" in collaboration with ASAM, İzmir University of Economics, and Institut Français de Turquie. Her experimental short film, "Peki Ben Neden Hala Buradayım?" (Why Am I Still Here Then?), which is a sequel of "61 St No 4", became a finalist at various festivals, including the SİYAD Awards.
Currently, Çağıl is actively collaborating with the Darağaç Collective in İzmir and continues to work on editing projects. Identifying herself as a filmmaker, Çağıl is a fan of horror cinema and continues their work in the field of experimental cinema while residing in İzmir.
Our Student Cagil Saydam came in first place at the 27th International Adana Altın Koza Film Festival: https://www.ieu.edu.tr/en/news/type/read/id/7349
Our alumni Gökçe Özakman
Graduation year: 2020
Who is she? What is she doing now?
After graduating from the Department of Cinema and Digital Media in 2020, Gökçe Özakman started his career in the film industry. Her first internship at 1000 Volt Post Production, which she started in 2018, gave her the opportunity to establish a valuable business network. Thanks to this experience, Gökçe moved to Istanbul in 2019 and worked as an assistant director in important production companies such as Kala Film, Medyapım and Ayyapım. She deepened her experience and knowledge by working as a director/directorial continuity assistant in important projects such as “Yargı” with Ali Bilgin, “Aldatmak” with Murat Saraçoğlu, “Şımarık” with Onur Ünlü, “Gibi Season 6” with Feyyaz Yiğit and most recently “The Night Agent” with Guy Ferland. Currently, she is the social media manager of RobinAkademi's Instagram page while continuing her projects with Onur Ünlü. In addition to these projects in her career, Gökçe is very interested in darts and participates in open tournaments in neighboring countries. She also continues her ballet course and lives a life intertwined with art. These hobbies provide her with balance both physically and spiritually, as well as developing her artistic perspective.
