Central Park Co-Production Meeting

I am organizing a meetup for mid-career filmmakers at Central Park in New York from September 16–24, 2026. We’ll get to know each other, relax on the grass to talk cinema, and discuss our projects. I’ll be treating everyone to pastrami after the meeting (with vegan alternatives available).

If you would like to join, email me.

Meanwhile Latest Updates

My second feature film, Marriage A-la-Mode (2026), was selected for Adana FF (September 26 – October 4, 2026) in Turkey. It will be its World Premiere. I had never attended this festival before, so I appreciate the selection. I will publish the screening schedule in the Screening Calendar when it is published.

By the way: I skipped submitting to Antalya FF due to poor technical standards (specifically audio in their main theatre) and organizational flaws I experienced before. I also skipped Bogazici FF; despite good past experiences, having attended twice, I want to avoid becoming a permanent fixture (it’s time to make room for other voices). I did not submit to Ankara FF, too. In the past, they canceled the premiere of my short film Downtown (2014) because of attempted censorship of another film in the selection. They couldn’t manage the situation and offered to play only the audio of my film as a protest, which I refused. They didn’t have the guts to screen the films, which shows me they lack organizational skills. Hard pass for me.

I don’t know what the path forward looks like from here. Maybe I’ll try Istanbul FF, as I haven’t attended it before. Other than that, we have no other festival submissions pending, and I am not planning to submit unless we are invited. Here are the rejections so far:

Official Rejections: Cannes, San Sebastian, Sarajevo, and Busan.

Unofficial Passes: Received a soft rejection from Venice and were ghosted by Mannheim and Tallinn Black Nights after sending screeners directly to programmers.

That’s the situation.

If you are in New York or Adana in September and would like to talk more, let’s meet up.