Ayse Toprak

Ayse Toprak is a Turkish filmmaker and alum of Sundance and Tribeca Institutes. She learned her trade in the US, earning a BFA in Film and Television from the NYU Tisch School of the Arts and an MA in Media Studies from The New School.

After working as an in-house director-producer at Al Jazeera in London, Doha and Istanbul from 2007 to 2016, Ayse directed her first feature-length creative documentary, Mr. Gay Syria, in 2017. Ayse’s moving film about LGBTQIA+ visibility in hostile regimes premiered at Sheffield DocFest and went on to play at more than 100 international film festivals, including IDFA Best of Fest, MoMA’s Doc Fortnight and Movies That Matter. It won multiple awards, including a Human Rights Award at the Sarajevo International Film Festival and a Silver Hugo in Chicago.

She co-directed her next film, My Name is Happy (2022), for Channel 4 and ARTE. Following Turkish singer Mutlu Kaya’s intense campaign against femicide, this biographical film premiered at IDFA’s Frontlight and has won seven awards to date, as well as an impact grant, and the Best Single Documentary International at the Grierson Awards 2024. Dear Friend, her third feature is in production/post-production and is a personal story that takes place in Turkey.

Ayse’s desire is to make films that are intimate, political and manage to break prejudices or breach hitherto taboo subjects.