Mustafa Preşeva

Mustafa Preşeva — Biography

Mustafa Preşeva was born on 11 October 1961 in Mitrovica, then part of Yugoslavia and now in Kosovo, and is a film editor and actor of Albanian descent. After studying mechanical engineering at Belgrade Technical University, he studied film editing at Belgrade's Faculty of Dramatic Arts and worked mainly as an editor from 1983; in 1986 he won a Golden Medal for the short film Dying Woods at the Belgrade Short Film and Documentary Festival, and in 1989 was named Editor of the Year at the Pula Film Festival for The Fall of Rock and Roll.

He settled in Istanbul in 1992 during the Yugoslav Wars, and went on to win the Golden Orange for best editing three times at the Antalya festival, for Tabutta Rövaşata (1996), Filler ve Çimen (2001) and Vicdan (2008), plus two further editing awards in the same year, 2005, at the Ankara International Film Festival for Karpuz Kabuğundan Gemiler Yapmak and Neredesin Firuze. His editing credits include Vizontele, G.O.R.A., Organize İşler, Ayla and Müslüm; he played an Italian priest in the 2001 film The Accidental Spy, and, owing to his resemblance to Atatürk, played him in two television commercials, in 1997 and 2010.

He has taught film editing at Koç, Bilgi, Bilkent and Kadir Has universities, also taught sound design at Bilgi for a time, and is involved in music alongside his film work.