HfG alumnus Mustafa Emin Büyükcoşkun wins Hubert Bals and World Cinema Funds with his debut film Athlete

Graduate of media arts and scenography Mustafa Emin Büyükcoşkun has been granted Hubert Bals Fund Europe+ of Rotterdam and World Cinema Fund of Berlin Film Festival with his first feature film project Athlete, that he wrote and directed together with Semih Gülen.

Following the story of a young and ambitious weightlifter, who uses pregnancy doping to ensure a medal in championship, the film depicts a vibrant portrait of New Turkey, struggling in a sharp socioeconomical crisis.

Athlete has been developed partially at HfG, under the supervision of former film professor Razvan Radulescu. The project has been presented at Antalya Film Forum, MIA Rome, Transilvania Pitch Stop where it won Eurimages Coproduction Award and at CoCo Pitch of Cottbus Film Festival, where it has been granted Avanpost Pitch Package Ward. Recently the project has been presented in Work in Progress Platform of Les Films du Cannes au Bucharest, where it has been awarded in kind post-production services from Avanpost again.

The shooting took place in the summer of 2022 and winter of 2023 in İzmir, Sarajevo and Karlsruhe. The project is realized through a collaboration between art and films schools in Germany. HfG media arts student Lehel Lajos worked as sound recordist. In Karlsruhe unit media arts alumnus Benjamin Breitkopf worked as line producer and student Yäel Kolb worked as gaffer. Another media arts student Zulfikar Filandra supervised the production in Sarajevo unit. Cinematography has been executed by Ayşe Alacakaptan from dffb. The film has been produced by Golden Leopard winning Arda Çiltepe from HfBK and co-produced by Anamaria Antoci from Tangaj Film, Romania.

Athlete is post-production process now and expected to be have its world premiere in winter 2024.