Mehmet Aktaş

}} Mehmet Aktaş (born 1966 in Iğdır, Turkey) is a Kurdish filmmaker, producer, author, and journalist. He is born in Turkey but lives in Germany. He is the founder and chief executive of the film production and distribution company, Mîtosfilm, in Berlin.

In the mid-1990s, Aktaş came to Germany after he had finished his studies at law school in Istanbul. In Germany, he wondered because German people disregarded Near Eastern cinema, especially the Kurdish cinema. Therefore, he founded the first Kurdish Film Festival in Germany in 2002 which was supported by the "Hauptstadtkulturfonds".

With Mîtosfilm Aktaş produced feature films like ''Close up Kurdistan'' (2007) directed by Yüksel Yavuz, ''Land of Legend'' (2008) directed by Rahim Zabihi, and ''Après la Chute'' (2009) directed by Hiner Saleem. In 2009, Mehmet Aktaş was successful as producer of ''No One knows about Persian Cats'' directed by Bahman Ghobadi which was honored at the Film Festival Cannes with the award ''Un Certain Regard''.

Mîtosfilm also functions as filmdistribution, focusing on new Turkish, Kurdish, Iraqi and Iranian auteur cinema. Since 2004, Mîtosfilm has also released films in German cinemas: ''Turtles can fly'' (2004), ''Two Girls from Istanbul'' (2005), ''Süt'' (2008) and ''Min dît'' (2010). These films illustrate Aktaş' political aspiration of giving a more authentic image of the life in the Near East than the local news.

Mehmet Aktaş also wrote the screenplay for Hisham Zaman's second feature film ''Letter to the King'' (2014) which received the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film at Goteborg Film Festival 2014. Mîtosfilm's latest production ''Memories on Stone'' (2014) directed by Shawkat Amin Korki and written by Mehmet Aktaş and Korki was awarded at Abu Dhabi Film Festival 2014 as Best Film from the Arab World. Korki won the prize as "Best Director" at Cinedays Skopje – 13th Festival of European Film. "Memories on Stone" was released in Swiss cinema-theaters by the prestigious distributor Trigon Film in November 2014.

Since then, he has produced and executively produced multiple features and documentaries, including "The Legend of the Ugly King" by Hüseyin Tabak which premiered at Toronto International Film Festival in 2017. "The Rain Bride" (2022) by Hussein Hassan premiered at Göteborg Film Festival in 2023.

His latest production ''In the Blind Spot'' (2023) by Ayse Polat premiered at the 73rd Berlinale in the section Encounters. The political thriller went on to win four awards at the 42nd Istanbul Film Festival, including the Golden Tulip for Best Feature and Best Screenplay.

Since 2011 Aktaş is also artistic director for the Duhok International Film Festival. Provided by Wikipedia