Pinar Fontini

Dr Fontini is a filmmaker and researcher who lectures in the Media program.

She works at the intersection of Middle Eastern Cinema and Feminist Film Studies. Her research explores women’s filmmaking, especially in the Middle East, as a form of communication, solidarity, and a space of 'radical possibility'. Her scholarly work has been published in leading journals including Camera Obscura, Feminist Media Studies, Studies in Documentary Film and Senses of Cinema. Her first monograph, Women's New Cinema in Contemporary Turkey: As if We Were Free, As If A Beautiful Life Were Possible, was published by Edinburgh University Press and its translation will be published by Agora Books. She is the recipient of Chancellor's Prize for Excellence in the PhD Thesis, University of Melbourne (2023).

Her feature-length documentary films have received numerous accolades worldwide. Dream Workers (2021) screened at the prestigious International Adana Golden Boll FF, Documentarist Which Human Rights FF and is hosted on the international art-house streaming service MUBI. And What's the Name of the Film? (2022) screened at Internatonal Antalya Golden Organge FF, MUBI, Taste of Anatolia FF and Doing Women's Film and Television History Conference VI, UK. It is the recipient of the Grand Award at International Antalya Golden Orange Film Forum 2021 and shortlisted for IDFA Forum 2021.