Biography

After studying sociology at Boğaziçi University, Pelin Esmer attended Yavuz Özkan’s Z1 Film Workshop. She worked as an assistant director in both documentary and fiction films, and later founded her own film company, Sinefilm. Since 2001, she has been making independent films, including The Collector, The Play, 10 to 11, Watchtower, Something Useful, and Queen Lear.

Her documentary The Play (2005) had its international premiere at the San Sebastian Film Festival. It was screened at over fifty festivals worldwide and won numerous awards, including Best Documentary Director at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Her first fiction film 10 to 11 (2009) was one of six projects selected for the Cannes Film Festival’s Cinéfondation. Esmer completed the script for the film there. 10 to 11 was screened in the official selection of the San Sebastian Film Festival, received several international awards, and was released in Turkey, France, and Germany.

Her second fiction film Watchtower (2012), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and International Film Festival Rotterdam, was screened in many countries and in five different U.S. states as part of the Caravanserai Program.

Her third fiction film Something Useful (2017) won several awards in Turkey, including the FIPRESCI Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Actress awards, and was also awarded Best Screenplay at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

In 2018, Pelin Esmer was invited to Berlin by the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program, where she worked on the editing of her documentary Queen Lear (2019). The film had its premiere at the Sarajevo Film Festival and was shown at many international film festivals. In Turkey, it received the Yılmaz Güney Award and the SİYAD Cüneyt Cebenoyan Award at the Adana Golden Boll Film Festival.

In the fall of 2019, Esmer was invited by the Camargo Foundation to a residency in Cassis, France, where she began working on her project And The Rest Will Follow. Completed in 2025, the film premiered at the International Fİlm Festival Rotterdam and was later invited to the Sofia International Film Festival and Istanbul Film Festival. It received the Best Screenplay award in the international competition of the Istanbul Film Festival. A Turkish-Romanian-Bulgarian co-production, And The Rest Will Follow continues its journey through national and international festivals, while Pelin Esmer continues to work on her new screenplay.