Freedom vs Safety: Choosing a Career in the Arts
About the Event
Join award-winning German filmmaker Ilker Çatak, known for the Oscar-nominated feature The Teacher's Lounge (2023), for a conversation about what it means to choose a career in the (cinematic) arts today. We'll discuss all the "how to's": From practical tips on getting started—such as breaking the news to your parents—to how to avoid the typical pitfalls...all the way to how to discover your very own voice, and even how to find the right outfit for the Oscars. Most importantly, we’ll explore the courage it takes to embrace freedom and make art the centerpiece of your life.
About the Speaker
Ilker Çatak was born in Berlin in 1984. In 1996, he moved with his family to Istanbul, where he attended the embassy school. Following his graduation, he returned to Germany and gathered first-hand experiences working on film productions. In 2005, Çatak started to direct his own shorts. Until 2010, he studied film direction at the Dekra Hochschule für Medien in Berlin. The following year, he received a writer scholarship from the Bayerische Rundfunk.
From 2012 until 2014, Çatak attended the Hamburg Media School, from which he graduated with a master degree. His graduation short "Sadakat" (2015) garnered the grand prize in the short competition of the Max-Ophüls-Preis Festival, a First Steps Award and a Student Academy Award.
In 2019, Çatak's "Es gilt das gesprochene Wort" ("I Was, I Am, I Will Be") premiered at the Munich Film Festival and went on to win numerous awards, including two Förderpreise Neues Deutsches Kino and the Bavarian Film Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Çatak was nominated at the German Film Awards for screenplay and direction.
"Das Lehrerzimmer" ("The Teachers' Lounge"), based on an original screenplay by him and Johannes Duncker, premiered in the Panorama of the 73rd Berlinale. In it, Leonie Benesch plays a young, idealistic grammar school teacher who wants to do everything right, but in doing so sets a devastating escalation in motion. The film was released in German cinemas in spring 2023, entered the race for the German Film Awards with seven nominations and won in key categories: Best Feature Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Editing and Best Female Lead. Furthermore, "Das Lehrerzimmer" received a nomination in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2024 Oscars®.