Biography for
Fatih Akin More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

Mini Biography

Fatih Akin was born in 1973 in Hamburg of Turkish parentage. He began studying Visual Communications at Hamburg's College of Fine Arts in 1994. His collaboration with Wueste Film also dates from this time. In 1995, he wrote and directed his first short feature, "Sensin - You're The One!" ("Sensin - Du Bist Es!"), which received the Audience Award at the Hamburg International Short Film Festival. His second short film, "Weed" ("Getuerkt", 1996), received several national and international festival prizes. His first full length feature film, "Short Sharp Shock" ("Kurz Und Schmerzlos", 1998) won the Bronze Leopard at Locarno and the Bavarian Film Award (Best Young Director) in 1998. His other films include: "In July" ("Im Juli", 2000), "Wir Haben Vergessen Zurueckzukehren" (2001), "Solino" (2002), the Berlinale Golden Bear-winner and winner of the German and European Film Awards "Head-On" ("Gegen Die Wand", 2003), and "Crossing the Bridge - The Sound of Istanbul" (2005).

Spouse

Trivia

Is a fan of Jim Jarmusch

Member of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2001

Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005

His wife Monique gave birth to their first child, a son (2 September 2005).

His parents emigrated from Turkey to Germany in the 1960s.

Brother of Cem Akin.

Sometimes appears as "DJ Superdjango" in clubs.

Two of his films were submitted for the Best Foreign Langugage Film category of The 80th Annual Academy Awards (2008) (TV): The Edge of Heaven (2007) (as director, writer and producer) for Germany and Takva: A Man's Fear of God (2006) (as producer) for Turkey (September 2007).

Studied at the School of Visual Arts from 1994 to 2000.

His father worked in a dry cleaning company, his mother was an elementary school teacher.

Started writing short stories and scripts in his youth.

Personal Quotes

What I'm always trying to say is, this Turkish-German gap, you know, or this connecting element of the two nations, or systems, or worlds - you can change that and put other things instead. Mexico and the U.S., same thing.

If you love the cinema, you have to love America.

Where Are They Now

(November 2009) He visited Argentina to promote his film Soul Kitchen (2009) in Buenos Aires.