On Writing, Directing and Acting - Erkan Kolçak Köstendil
Actor, writer, and director Erkan Kolçak Köstendil who will be part of the jury in 20th Akbank Short Film Festival’s National Competition will share his sectoral experiences with the festival followers.
Erkan Kolçak Köstendil
Köstendil was born on January 16th, 1983, in Bursa, Turkey. Having spent his childhood years in Bursa, Köstendil used to be a goalkeeper at the Bursa Spor football team during high school. While thinking about joining the Sports Academy, thanks to a former teacher, he met two successful actors; Erkan Can and Ali Sürmeli, and decided to study at the Conservatory instead. He later got into The Fine Arts Faculty at Mimar Sinan University where he majored in The Stage Arts. During his university years, he worked as assistant director in large productions such as ‘Yılan Hikayesi’, and developed an interest in theatre as well. The first play Köstendil wrote and directed is ‘Karşı Cinsle Tanışma Sanatı’. Later, he won the ‘Young Actor Special Award’ at the ‘17th Sadri Alışık Cinema and Theatre Awards’, as well as being named ‘Best Actor of the Year’ by the ‘Tiyatro Tiyatro’ Magazine, with his play, ‘Aut’. In the 2015 season, Köstendil gave life to all the male characters in the play ‘Kalp Düğümü’, staged at ‘Craft Tiyatro’. His most recent stage performance was in his self-written, ’12 Numaralı Adam’, with which he continues his theatre journey both domestically and internationally.
Upon graduating, Köstendil leaned more towards working behind the camera as he wrote, directed, and starred in his medium-length film ‘Torbacının Esrarı’, which he shot in Amsterdam and İstanbul. ‘Mukadderat’, a series that he wrote and directed was the first Facebook series in Turkey. With his short film ‘Vakit’, which he also also wrote and directed himself, Köstendil won ‘Best Screenplay’ and ‘Best Cinematography’ at the Galatasaray Universiy Sinepark Short Film Competition, ‘Best Film’ and ‘Best Director’ at the Kral Midas Short Film Competition, ‘Best Screenplay’, ‘Best Cinematography’, ‘Best Director’, and ‘Best Film’ at the 47th Antalya Altın Portakal Film Festival Special Screening. Then with his next short, ‘Suma’, which he wrote and directed as well, and produced through his self-founded production company ‘Kumbara Film’, he won many awards in various international competitions including the ‘Amsterdam International Film Festival’, and the ‘Los Angeles Film Awards’.
Köstendil started out his big-screen appearances with the Tomris Giritlioğlu film, ‘Güz Sancısı’ (2009) and went on to work with some of the nation’s best directors in movies such as; ‘Melekler ve Kumarbazlar’(2009), ‘One Night in İstanbul’(2014), ‘Yağmur-Kıyamet Çiçeği’ (2014), ‘Yok Artık’ (2015), the Onur Ünlü film ‘İtirazım Var’ (2014) which gained huge success in many film festivals, ‘Kara Bela’ (2015) written and directed by Burak Aksak, and ‘Yol Ayrımı’(2017) directed by legendary director, Yavuz Turgul, Nihat Durak film “Babam”, Onur Ünlü film “Put Şeylere”. He appeared in ‘Sibel’, by directors Çağla Zencirci and Guillaume Giovanetti, which received many awards in national and international film festivals. His latest movie credits are “Türk İşi Dondurma”, “Bandırma Füze Kulübü”, “Gönül” and “İyi Bir Aile Değiliz.”
In 2009, Köstendil started out his TV career with the hit timepiece ‘Sakarya Fırat’, directed by Osman Sınav, in which he played the role of ‘Mahmut’. Later he went on to star in; ‘Babalar ve Evlatları’, and ‘Merhamet’. In 2014, Köstendil reached a huge audience and fan base with his portrayal of ‘Karlos’, in the hit TV show ‘Ulan İstanbul’, directed by Murat Onbul. He won the ‘Tabloid Journalists Association’s Juror’s Special Prize’, and was given ‘The Rising Star of the Year 2015 Award’ by GQ magazine. The hit song ‘Yanarım’, which he wrote the lyrics and the music to was used in ‘Ulan İstanbul’ and became the most watched YouTube video of 2015 with 90 million views.
Erkan Kolçak Köstendil later went on to play the historical figure ‘Şahin Giray’, in the internationally acclaimed, ‘Muhteşem Yüzyıl: Kösem’, which aired on Star Tv in 2015. His next role ‘Toprak’ was in the show ‘Familya’, which aired on Fox TV. In 2017, Köstendil took on the role of ‘Görünen Adam’, in Turkey’s first internet series ‘Görünen Adam’, directed by Onur Ünlü.
The successful actor gave life to the character ‘Vartolu Saadettin’ in the hit TV show, ‘Çukur’, and his last TV series was “Ne Gemiler Yaktım”. ,
Erkan Kolçak Köstendil received great acclaim for his role as "Frankeistein" in the "Creature" project, which was broadcast on Netflix in 2023.
* All workshops and talks organized as part of the 19th Akbank Short Film Festival are free of charge. Participation is limited to side events of the festival.
* You can get your event participation card from Akbank Sanat's information desk one hour before the event.