About

Özgür Uyanık is a filmmaker and author. Read Q&A with Özgür in the Wales Arts Review.

Short story collection MEN ALONE coming out July 2024. Available to pre-order from Parthian Books.

“From Özgür Uyanık comes a debut collection of audacious, darkly wry and compassionate short stories. Driven by universal themes of desire, mortality, loss and yearning, each story evokes both the melancholy and the hope inherent in all stages of life, from childhood through to maturity.

Artists, writers, lovers, killers: all types of men walk these pages, along the streets of Cardiff, İstanbul, London, Paris, Odessa and Lisbon. All seeking to find a way to belong in the world.

Men Alone is a meditative vision from a unique voice that explores the many – often confounding – permutations of modern masculinity.”

Debut novel CONCEPTION published in the UK and North America (Fairlight Books). He was a contributing co-editor for an anthology of creative essays JUST SO YOU KNOW—ESSAYS OF EXPERIENCE from Parthian Books, also out now. You can read his essay and an interview with the editors in the Wales Arts Review.

Awards

Winner of the “Criminally Good Crime Writing Competition” at the Essex Book Festival, 2020. His on-line advertising campaign film I CAN’T BREATHE! won Best Marketing Campaign & Most Creative in Science at the Farmaskop Awards, Türkiye, 2013. His series of online campaign films directed for Age Concern, HUNGRY TO BE HEARD won Best Use of New Media at the Communique Awards, UK, 2009. He wrote and directed debut feature film RESURRECTING THE STREETWALKER, nominated Best UK Feature at the 17^th Raindance Film Festival, 2009. Winner Best European Short for OBLIVIOUS at the Brussels International Short Film Festival, 2001.

Film

His screenwriting has been long-listed by the BBC Drama Room and he was a PAGE International Screenwriting Awards top-10 finalist in the horror/thriller category, 2018. He was selected for the British Film Institute’s Emerging Filmmakers program during the London Film Festival 2016, supported by Film Cymru Wales as part of NET.WORK@LFF. Selected participant BAFTA Crew 2018-2020. He is a BAFTA Connect and WGGB member.

His feature film projects currently in development include THE UNVEILER and THIS IS NOT A TRUE STORY. His work has been selected by the Binger Writers Lab in Amsterdam (2014-2015 with an International Scholarship from Creative Skillset), Creative Europe MEDIA’s The Film Garage genre film workshops in Torino (2015), Ffilm Cymru Wales Cinematic II scheme (2017) and the BFI Network Wales Horizons Fund (2016-2018).

Publishing

Interviews with Özgür about his novel and reviews can be found in Wales Arts Review, The Cardiff Review, The Mechanics’ Institute Review and Fairlight Books website.

‘”Conception” is a novel that deserves to be read slowly to fully appreciate the word play and sharp wit of the writing.’ Michelle Deininger, Wales Arts Review

‘Özgür Uyanık’s debut novel sizzles with subversive humour and macabre energy. This book engages all the senses, while alluding to deeper concerns than those it ostensibly addresses.’  Richard Gwyn, poet and novelist.

‘Smart, bold and fresh—these are voices we need to hear.‘ Darren Chetty, writer and contributor, “The Good Immigrant”