Muzaffer Özdemir

Muzaffer Özdemir — Biography

Muzaffer Özdemir owes his acting reputation almost entirely to his partnership with director Nuri Bilge Ceylan; sources disagree on whether the Gümüşhane-born actor was born in 1955 or 1957. After playing Deli Ahmet in Ceylan's Kasaba and taking on a role close to the director's own persona in Mayıs Sıkıntısı, he became internationally known for playing a photographer in Uzak, a performance that brought him the Cannes best actor award in 2003, an honour he split with fellow cast member Mehmet Emin Toprak.

Yet he had originally come to Istanbul hoping to become an actor and enrolled in the geology department at Istanbul Technical University instead, turned briefly to documentary filmmaking, and took a minor part in Yavuz Özkan's Yarış; in 1981 he returned to Ankara and worked alongside his architect brother on the restoration of historic buildings. A year before the Cannes award, the Orhon Murat Arıburnu Prizes had already named him best actor.

He later returned to the screen in films such as Siyah Beyaz and Paranın Kokusu, moved behind the camera in 2011 by writing and directing Yurt, and was a jury member at the Ankara International Film Festival.