Sinan Akkuş


Sinan Akkuş is a Turkish-German director, writer and actor.

Life and work

Sinan Akkuş was born in Turkey. As a child he moved to Germany in 1973. After graduating from high school in Kassel, he studied philosophy, German language and literature from 1992 to 1994. In 1994 he also began studying visual communication with a focus on film and television.
In addition, Akkuş worked for the film and television production company kigali-films, where he was involved in camera work, editing and conception of corporate videos. In 1995 he attended the Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión as an exchange student in Cuba. In 2000 he graduated from the Kunsthochschule Kassel with a focus on film and television.
Afterwards, Akkuş made a few short films, which received several awards and honours. His short film Lassie, for example, received the rating especially worthwhile from the German Deutsche Film- und Medienbewertung (FBW). His feature film debut also received this rating. In this Culture clash - comedy, Akkuş takes on the subject of marriage among and by ethnic Turks in Germany and the associated difficulties. The film received the audience award Lüdia at the Kinofest Lünen in November 2008 and was released in German cinemas on 1 October 2009.
In 2015, Akkuş' feature film 3 Türken und ein Baby, to which he also wrote the screenplay and in which the German rapper Eko Fresh and the actors Kostja Ullmann and Kida Khodr Ramadan play the leading roles, was released in German cinemas. 3 Türken und ein Baby received the rating worthwhile from the Deutsche Film- und Medienbewertung and was nominated for the Civis Media Prize in 2015. This was followed by several directorial works for German television. One of the director's works by Akkuş, the ARD - television film Fischer sucht Frau was nominated for the TV Producer Award at the Hamburg Film Festival in 2018. His ARD - tragicomedy Ihr letzter Wille kann mich mal! starring Heiner Lauterbach, Uwe Ochsenknecht and Svenja Jung celebrated its world premiere at the Biberach Film Festival on November 1, 2019. Akkuş also directed episodes of the first and second season of the ZDF - TV series Wendehammer and the ZDF - television film Extraklasse starring Axel Prahl.
Akkuş has also made on-screen appearances. Among others, he played in the first season of the ProSieben - TV series Stromberg the character Sinan Turçulu, a colleague and one of the strongest competitors of the series main character Bernd Stromberg. Turculu also appears in the feature film Stromberg – The Movie of the series. In the TV series Dr. Psycho – Die Bösen, die Bullen, meine Frau und ich Akkuş had a guest appearance in the episode Der Türke, where he played a police informer.
Furthermore, Akkuş has also acted as a juror for film festivals such as the Bamberger Kurzfilmtage or the Independent Days International Filmfest and works as a lecturer at the acting school IAF - Internationale Akademie für Filmschauspiel in Cologne.

Filmography (selection)

Director / screenwriter

  • 1997: Zeig Dich,
  • 2003: Lassie,
  • 2004: Sevda heißt Liebe,
  • 2008:,
  • 2015: 3 Türken und ein Baby,
  • 2018: Fischer sucht Frau,
  • 2019: Fast perfekt verliebt,
  • 2020: Lehrerin auf Entzug,
  • 2021: Mirella Schulze rettet die Welt,
  • 2021: Servus, Schwiegermutter!,
  • 2022: Extraklasse – On Tour,
  • 2022-2023: Wendehammer,

Actor

Other

Awards and nominations

  • 2001: Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Award at the Day of the German Short Film for Sevda heißt Liebe
  • 2002: Audience Award at the film festival Kinofest Lünen for Lassie
  • 2003: Audience Award at the Exground Filmfest in Wiesbaden, Germany for Lassie
  • 2003: Nomination at the German Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis in the category Best Short Film for Lassie
  • 2008: Merit Award at the Achtung Berlin Film Festival for Evet, I Do!
  • 2008: Nomination for the award MFG Star at the Baden-Baden TV Film Festival for Evet, I Do!
  • 2009: Prize Lüdia at the film festival Kinofest Lünen in the category Best Feature Film for Evet, I Do!
  • 2009: Berndt-Media-Award at the film festival Kinofest Lünen in the category Best Film Title for Evet, I Do!
  • 2010: Nomination at the German Film Critics Association Awards in the category Best Feature Film Debut for Evet, I Do!
  • 2015: Nomination at the Civis Media Prize in the category CIVIS European Cinema Prize for ''3 Türken & ein Baby''