Kazım Öz is a Kurdish filmmaker born in 1973 in Dersim, Turkey, known for his work as a director, writer, editor, cinematographer, and producer. He began his career in 1992 with the theater group Teatra Jiyana Nu and later co-founded the production company Mezopotamya Sinema.
His early short film Ax (The Land) won multiple awards and led to his first feature, Fotoğraf (The Photograph), which screened at international festivals including National Geographic’s All Roads. His documentary Dûr (The Far) won Best Documentary at both the Nürnberg Turkey Germany Film Festival and the Ankara Film Festival, and was supported by the IDFA Jan Vrijman Fund and broadcast on ARTE.
Öz gained wide recognition with Bahoz (The Storm), followed by the fiction-documentary Demsala Dawi: Şewaxan (The Last Season: Shawaks), co-produced with ARTE France. In 2014, his co-production He Bû Tune Bû (Once Upon a Time) premiered at Cinéma du Réel, where it won the Libraries’ Award. His most recent film is Elif Ana (2022).
Alongside filmmaking, Öz has served on festival juries, published the script of Bahoz as a book, and worked as an educator in film workshops in Istanbul and Diyarbakır, mentoring emerging filmmakers.
