Murat Akser is a British/Canadian/Turkish director/screenwriter based in Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK. Murat Akser is a practicing filmmaker with experience in Toronto and Northern Ireland film industry as a cinematographer, editor, screenwriter and director. His feature screenplay, Rise and Fall, has been accepted to Sundance Screenwriter's Lab in 2014 and his most recent film The Gift won Best International Short FIlm at Dublin Silk Road International Film Festival. He previously worked in film and television industry in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. His most recent dramatic films include the award-winning The Gift, Delicate, and The Hoarder. He was previously awarded Payback Award by Canadian Film Center for his contribution to Canadian film productions. He has been a member of IATSE 667 International Cinematographers Guild, IFTA and BAFTA Connect as well as working as part of BBC Writersroom. As a practicing filmmaker he has worked extensively on different film and television formats since 2005. Murat has an MA in Screenwriting for Film and Television from IADT National Film School. After attending Bogazici University, he got his BA in English in 1995 and an MA in History in 1999. He had his formal training in filmmaking at Directors Guild of Turkey in 1998 from renowned film directors such as Lütfi Ö. Akad, 'Memduh Un', 'Omer Kavur'. Nedim V. Otyam, 'Ertem Gorec' and Duygu Sagiroglu. Later in 1999 he attended PhD seminars at MSU Turkish Film Institute by Metin Erksan and Halit Refiğ. In 1999 he came to Canada to study film at York University where he got his MA in Film and Video. He was a PhD student in Communication and Culture at Toronto Metropolitan University. After seven years of teaching and research on cinema at academic level he has joined International Cinematographers' Guild in 2004. Akser directed music videos and short films for Ronin Media and Entertainment Inc. Murat Akser is responsible for organizing Norman Jewison retrospective at Bloor Cinema in 2000.
