Fatih Akin (; born 25 August 1973) is a German and Turkish film director, screenwriter and producer.Çağla Karabağ, "Intercultural Encounters in Fatih Akın's Films" in Klaus Roth, Robert Hayden (ed.), Migration In, From, and to Southeastern Europe: Part 1: Historical and Cultural Aspects, Ethnologia Balcanica 13, LIT Verlag Münster, 2011, , p. 181. His films have won numerous awards and accolades, including the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for his film Head-On (2004), Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival for his film The Edge of Heaven (2007), and the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film for his film In the Fade (2017).
Early life Akin was born to Turkish parents in Hamburg in West Germany. He has one brother, actor Cem Akin. He attended the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg to study visual communications, graduating in 2000.
Akin has been married to German-Mexican actress Monique Obermüller since 2004. The couple live in Hamburg-Altona, close to where he was raised. They have two children.
Career Akin made his debut as director of a full-length film as early as 1998 with Short Sharp Shock (Kurz und schmerzlos), which brought him the "Bronze Leopard" award at the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland and the "Pierrot", the Bavarian Film Award for Best New Director in Munich the same year. Since then he has directed feature films such as In July (Im Juli) in 2000, We forgot to go back (Wir haben vergessen zurückzukehren) in 2001 and Solino''' in 2002.
His fourth film, Head-On (Gegen die Wand), starring Sibel Kekilli, was a major success in 2004 and received several prizes, among them the Golden Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival and the "Best Film" and the "Audience Award" at the 2004 European Film Awards.
In 2005, he directed a documentary about the Istanbul music scene, Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul, which includes musicians such as Ceza, Sezen Aksu, Aynur Doğan and Brenna MacCrimmon. It is narrated by a member of a German experimental band Einstürzende Neubauten, Alexander Hacke, who also produced music for Head-On.
In 2007, Akin's The Edge of Heaven, a German-Turkish cross-cultural tale of loss, mourning and forgiveness, won the prize for Best Screenplay at the 60th Cannes Film Festival in 2007. On 24 October 2007 the same film was awarded the first edition of the LUX prize for European cinema by the European Parliament.
About the comedy Soul Kitchen (2009) he has said he chose this more light-hearted film because he needed a break after making the "tough" films Head-On and The Edge of Heaven before making his next planned film The Devil. "But", he says, "now I feel ready to finish the trilogy".
In 2012, his documentary film Polluting Paradise was screened in the Special Screenings section at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.
His 2014 film The Cut was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 71st Venice International Film Festival.
In 2017, Akin's film In the Fade was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in the main competition section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. At Cannes that year, Diane Kruger won the Best Actress award. The film was subsequently selected as the German entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards, making the December shortlist. In the Fade won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.
Controversy and death threats For his shooting of The Cut, a movie on the Armenian genocide, Akin received thousands of death threats by Turkish nationalists.
The Turkish nationalist organization Ötüken Neşriyat threatened Akin for shooting the movie. They wrote a statement in which called Akin a "Kurdish director" and accused him of having a "close relationship with [the] PKK", openly threatening the newspaper Agos, Armenians and Akin himself, writing that "we are not going to let this movie to get screened in Turkey". They threatened that Akın and those associated with the film would suffer the "same fate as Hrant Dink", an Armenian-Turkish journalist who was assassinated in 2007 by a Turkish nationalist. The group explicitly noted they were monitoring the situation with their "white berets", the symbolic headwear worn by Dink's assassin.
Akin was reportedly not surprised by the threats, stating that "I spent 7 or 8 years working on this movie, I had time to anticipate what the reaction would be".
Works Feature films YearEnglish titleOriginal titleNotes1998Short Sharp ShockKurz und schmerzlosBronze Leopard at Locarno Film Festival2000In JulyIm Juli.2002Solino2004Head-OnGegen die WandGolden Bear winner2007The Edge of HeavenAuf der anderen SeiteBest Screenplay at 2007 Cannes Film Festival2009Soul KitchenSpecial Jury Prize at 66th Venice International Film Festival2014The Cut2016Goodbye BerlinTschick2017In the FadeAus dem NichtsGolden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film2019The Golden GloveDer goldene Handschuh2022RhinegoldRheingold2025Amrum2026Ghost SongGeister
Documentaries YearEnglish titleOriginal title2005Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul2012Polluting ParadiseDer Müll im Garten Eden
Other credits YearEnglish titleOriginal titleNotes1995Sensin... You're the One!Sensin – Du bist es!Short film1996WeedGetürkt1997Back in TroubleActor2001 – Wir haben vergessen zurückzukehrenTV documentary series episode2004Visions of EuropeEuropäische Visionensegment Die bösen alten Lieder2004Kebab ConnectionCo-writer2004Robbery Alla TurcaHırsız Var!Actor (Lokman)2008New York, I Love YouA segment201930/30 Vision: 3 Decades of Strand Releasinganthology film segment
Video games Year Title Role Notes2025Death Stranding 2: On the BeachDollmanLikeness
Awards 1998 Bavarian Film Awards, Best New Director 2004 Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival 2004 European Film Awards, Best Film, Audience Award 2007 Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival Golden Orange Award, Best Director 2007 Bavarian Film Awards, Best Director 2007 LUX Prize for European Cinema awarded by European Parliament 2007 Cannes Film Festival, Best Screenplay 2010 Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his contribution in depicting the problems of Turkish-Germans. 2018 Golden Globe Award, Best Foreign Language Film 2026 [BCN Film Festival], Best Film
Collaborations Actors Short Sharp Shock In July Solino Head-On The Edge of Heaven Soul Kitchen The CutCem AkinMoritz BleibtreuAdam BousdoukosStefan GebelhoffDemir GökgölMarc HosemannMehmet KurtuluşHermann LauseCatrin StriebeckBirol Ünelİdil ÜnerPatrycia Ziółkowska
References
Bibliography Barbara Kosta, "Transcultural Exchanges: Fatih Akin's Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul (2005)," in Martinson, Steven D. / Schulz, Renate A. (Eds./hg.), Transcultural German Studies / Deutsch als Fremdsprache: Building Bridges / Brücken bauen'' (Bern etc., Peter Lang, 2008) (Jahrbuch für Internationale Germanistik, Reihe A: Kongressberichte, 94),
External links
Fatih Akin Bibliography (via UC Berkeley) Rocking Istanbul A talk with Daniel Bax on the film "Crossing the Bridge", tour guides and Vikings, music divas and the responsibilities of critical acclaim at signandsight.com