Movie
director, scriptwriter. He was born on February 3rd, 1959, in
Istanbul. He went to Italy to study Cinema History at Sapienza University of
Rome in 1976. He attended art history and costume design classes at the Navona
Academy. He also attended directing classes at the Silvio D'Amico National
Academy of Theatre Arts. In 1982, he worked as Troisi’s assistant director for Scusate
il Ritardo, and later as Maurizio Ponzi’s for Sono Contento, where
he had his first role performing as a street artist. For about fifteen years,
he worked as assistant director of different directors such as Ricky Tognazzi,
Lamberto Bava, Francesco Nuti, Sergio Citti, Giovanni Veronesi and Marco Risi.
His
first move İl Bagno Turco - Hamam,
which was an Italian and Turkish co-production, and which he himself produced
in collaboration with Maurizio Tedesco, won recognition of critics and it was
presented in festivals both in Italy and other countries. The movie was released
in Italy in May 1997 and at the same time it was presented in the Quinzaine des Realizatuers section
at the Cannes Film Festival, the most prestigious section of the festival. In
1996-97, the movie was regularly shown in Italy and it was presented until its
videocassette was released in February, 1998(39 weeks). The movie was distributed
to many countries, especially to France, England, the Netherlands, Germany,
Japan and the USA. In many countries such as Turkey, Norway, Sweden, the movie broke
box office records.
In
1999 Tilde Corsi and Gianni Romoli, Marie Gillain and Alex Descas produced
Ferzan Özpetek’s second movie, Harem
Suare. The story written by Özpetek himself in collaboration with Gianni
Romoli tells the tormented love story between the sultan’s favorite, Safiye,
and the eunuch Nadir, during the reign of Abdülhamit, the Sultan of the Ottoman
Empire, in Istanbul where the director was born. Harem Suare was admired
by both critics and audience and was presented in the Un Certain Regard section
at the Cannes Film Festival in the same year and was invited to the London Film
Festival and the Toronto Film Festival.
Ferzan
Özpetek’s third move Le Fate İgnoranti -
Cahil Periler, starring Margherita Buy, and Stefano Accorsi was the most
important movie of 2001 with his box office, international success and compliments
of critics. Cahil Periler was the most important agenda item of 2001 and
the movie won numerous awards including three Globi d’oro and four Nastro
d'Argento awards. La Finestra di Fronte – Karşı Pencere, starring
Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Massimo Girotti, Raoul Bova and Filippo Nigro, was
admired by the audience critics and it achieved an international success in
2003. The film won multiple awards including: five David di
Donatello, four Ciak d’Oro and three Globi d’Oro awards. In 2005, Ferzan Özpetek’
fifth movie, Cuore Sacro - Kutsal Yürek pairing
up with producers Gianni Romoli and Tilde Corsi, starring Barbara Bobulova
achieved numerous successes such as 12 nominations at the David di Donatello
awards. His next film, Saturno Contro –
Bir Ömür Yetmez, was released in 2007. It featured a very rich cast:
Stefano Accorsi and Margherita Buy, Pierfrancesco Favino, Serra Yılmaz, Ennio
Fantastichini, Ambra Angiolini, Luca Argenter, Lunetta Savino Luigi Di Berti
and Isabella Ferrari. Bir Ömür Yetmez accomplished an international
success and won numerous awards like other movies of Ferzan Özpetek. Özpetek
served on the jury at the 64th Venice International Film Festival
and he also directed commercial ad for the AIRC, the Italian association for
cancer research that featured Isabella Ferrari.
2008
was a milestone for Ferzan Özpetek’s career. For the first time, he worked on a movie that is not based on his own
original story idea but based on a novel written by Melania Gaia Mazzucco. Un Giorno Perfetto – Mükemmel Bir Gün starred Isabella Ferrari and Valerio
Mastandrea, in corporation with Gianni Romoli and Tilde Corsi, Domenico
Procacci from Fandango created a tremendous impression. It was presented at the
65th Venice International Film Festival. It grossed 3 million euro
at the box-office and it became the most trend topic and surprised critics. In 4th December 2008 – 12th December
2008, the Museum of Modern Arts in New York City (MoMa) dedicated a special retrospective
on him, screening his seven movies. He was the first from Turkey and one of the few from Italy
to be given this honor.
In
2009 he directed a short movie called Nonostante
tutto è Pasqua – Her şeye Rağmen Paskalya (T.N. Despite Everything it's
Easter), a segment of the project L’Aquila 2009 – “5 Directors Under the
Debris”, in the memory of the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake. Özpetek
dedicated his movie to Alessandra Cora, an aspiring singer who died in her
house’s rubble.
In
2009 Ferzan Özpetek directed Mine Vaganti
– Serseri Mayınlar co-written with Ivan Cotroneo and starred Riccardio
Scamarcio, Alessandro Preziosi, Nicole Grimaudo, Ennio Fantastichini,
and the movie was set in Lecce, Southern Italy. It is a comedy concerning the
family issues and its world premiere was at the 70th Berlin
International Film Festival, Panorama Section between 11th February
– 21st February 2010 and in March 2010 it was released in Italy.
Upon its success, Ferzan Özpetek was declared as an honorary citizen by the
city of Lecce. It was distributed to more than thirty-one countries including
England, France, Austria, Germany, Japan and the USA. Özpetek was nominated for eight Academy Awards with his latest movie Magnifica
Presenza – Şahane Misafir, released in 2012.
WORKS:
Hamam (1997), Harem Suare (1999),
Cahil Periler - Le Fate Ignoranti
(2000), Karşı Pencere - La Finestra
di Fronte (2002), Kutsal Yürek -
Cuore Sacro (2005), Bir Ömür
Yetmez - Saturno Contro (2007), Mükemmel
Bir Gün - Un Giorno Perfetto (2008), Serseri Mayınlar - Mine Vaganti (2010), Şahane Misafir - Magnifica Presenza (2012).