Atalay Taşdiken, Director of award-winning movies such as Mommo, Meryem, Arama Motoru (The Search Engine):

- A movie maker does not have money; a movie maker has his/her imagination and their dreams. When I was a child, I only had money enough to watch a movie once a week. Thus I used to watch one movie a week, and on the other six days, I used to stand outside the cinema gate and listen to the sounds of the movies inside the theatre.

- Movie makers should know that there are other sources of filming apart from public funds or international funds. I filmed my first movie through friend collaborations. What matters is to believe, to work hard, to trust your work, scenario and team.

- Digital transformation has created new opportunities for cinema. Cinema has become a more accessible field. You can film something with your mobile phones and publish it on the internet for the whole world to see.

- If you have something to say, to express pain or misery, or a story to tell the world, you can be a director.

Atalay Taşdiken, was born in 1964 in Konya. Working for many years in the advertising sector, Taşdiken worked in several posts such as a darkroom technician, scriptwriter and creative director. In 2008 he established his own production company. He wrote and directed the scenario of his first motion picture Mommo in 2008. His movie Mommo received The Best Director Award in the Bursa İpekyolu Film Festival and Hamedan Film Festival (Iran). He once again sat in the director’s seat with his movie Meryem (2013), but apart from motion pictures, Taşdiken has also taken on the productions of the television series Küçük Hanımefendi (2011) and Böyle Bitmesin (2012). He directed his latest movie Arama Motoru (The Search Engine) in 2015.