APSA for Achievement in Directing

Nuri Bilge Ceylan for ‘Uc Maymun’ (Three Monkeys)
Turkey/France/Italy

Nuri Bilge Ceylan was born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1959. After graduating as an engineer from Bosphorus University, Istanbul, he studied filmmaking for two years at Mimar Sinan University, Istanbul. His credits include: Les Climats (2006) Uzak (2003) and Mayis Sikintisi (Clouds of May) (1999).

“It's an extremely well scripted and very thoughtfully directed film of really enormous power and great subtlety in the relationships and like all really great films, it doesn’t put all its cards on the table at once and you can never quite predict which way it's going to go.” - Bruce Beresford (Jury President)

“Three Monkeys, I thought was a wonderful film.  I really think that the director has handled the acting, the choreography of the film, has given direction to the way the cinematography should be, therefore it's often de-saturated and dark and I think that goes extremely well with the mode of the film.  The director has handled the conflicting emotions in unsentimental yet sympathetic ways.  It's a very sophisticated film.” - Aparna Sen (Jury Member)

“Brilliant craftsmanship.  For me I thought it was impeccable.  The cinematography, the composition, the way that the story developed, the actors were brilliant and the texture that they gave, not only in terms of emotion but visually it was just amazing.  I thought it was a really, really good piece of work.” - Hanna Lee (Jury Member)

“Three Monkeys is, I should say, among all the movies that I have seen in this APSA’s, the one whose director has demonstrated the highest levels of skills and strongest capabilities of a movie director.  He has made such a simple “closed world” story, a story of a family of three people, into such an attractive movie that can make us fully concentrate all our attention on the movie from the beginning to the end.  This is because of his ability to control, to control the pictures, to control the actors, to control the whole movie, to control its rhythm, to control its music and to control everything.  In every aspect, it has reached a very high level.  The director is revealing his understanding and knowledge of his characters’ inner personal world.  I think this director well deserves the award for achievement in directing.“ - Professor Zheng Dongtian (Jury Member)