Ute Freund is a cinematographer based in Berlin. She shoots experimental art films, features and documentaries. She studied art history before her film studies at Hamburg Media School. Her diploma film THE RUNAWAY won Student Academy Award 2005. She was selected by Kodak for Emerging Filmmakers Program at Cannes FF. With feature YOU TOLD ME, THAT YOU LOVE ME she was awarded with with 1st prize of the National Competition for Women DoPs 2007. For the documentary HELLO I AM DAVID! she received Deutscher Kamerapreis 2016.

Rûken Tekeş, born in Diyarbakır, is an international human rights expert and self-made filmmaker. She began scriptwriting and directing on social, political and environmental issues in 2015. Her multi-award-winning fiction short debut HEVÊRK / THE CIRCLE was nominated for European Film Awards 2017. Her feature debut AETHER has premiered at Visions du Réel FF 2019, screened and awarded in international festivals. Her new feature film PHILAX is in development and has been selected to L’Atelier 2022 of 75th Cannes FF. Tekeş is member of European Film Academy.

Ute Freund and Rûken Tekeş were residents at the Tarabya Cultural Academy from October 2022 to January 2023 as a tandem of the German-Turkish co-production grants supported by the Allianz Foundation, and again with an extension from February to March 2024.