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Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay was born on May 25, 1987, in Bad Hersfeld and grew up in Hagen, Germany. In 2008, he completed his secondary education at the Rahel Varnhagen Evening School, earning his Abitur (university entrance qualification). That same year, he won the award for Best Short Film at the Hagen Mobile Film Festival with his entry "Wie ich lernte, Skifahren zu hassen" ("How I Learned to Hate Skiing"). He went on to study Media Arts at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM) and was awarded a scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes) in 2011.
During his studies, Büyükatalay made several award-winning short films. His 16-minute film "Vor dem Tor des Ijtihad" ("Before the Gate of Ijtihad," 2013) was named Best Short Film at the Turkish Film Festival Frankfurt and by Filmbüro Bremen, and also received the Jury's Special Prize at the Saint-Étienne Film Festival in France.
Büyükatalay's feature debut, "Oray" (2019), was his graduation film from KHM. The story of a young German-Turkish man torn between religious rules and personal feelings, "Oray" was co-produced by filmfaust—the production company Büyükatalay founded with Claus Herzog-Reichel. The film premiered in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section of the 2019 Berlinale, where it won the award for Best First Feature. It went on to receive several other honors, including the Grand Prize at the European First Film Festival in Angers (France) and the Jury Prize at the Strasbourg Film Festival Augenblick.
Following his graduation, Büyükatalay continued to work primarily as a producer through filmfaust, supporting projects such as Cem Kaya's multi-award-winning documentary "Liebe, D-Mark und Tod" ("Love, Deutschmarks and Death," 2022) and the experimental documentary "Sirens Call" (Germany/Netherlands, 2025), directed by Miri Ian Gossing and Lina Sieckmann.
His second feature as writer, director, and producer was "Hysteria," a drama about the making of an anti-racist film that spirals out of control after a Qur'an is accidentally burned on set. "Hysteria" premiered in the Panorama section of the 2025 Berlinale, where it received the Europa Cinemas Label Award. The film went on to win a Special Ensemble Prize at the Hessian Film Awards and earned Büyükatalay the Special Jury Prize for Best Screenplay at the Hamptons International Film Festival (USA). "Hysteria" was released in German cinemas in November 2025.