Sezen Kayhan is a writer, filmmaker, and postdoctoral researcher from Ankara, currently based in Berlin. She graduated from the Art Department of Ankara Anatolian High School of Fine Arts and holds a BA in Archaeology and Art History from Bilkent University, an MA in Film and TV from Bahçeşehir University, and a joint PhD in Film Studies and Visual Culture from the University of Antwerp and Koç University. She has also participated in short-term film programs at the National Film and Television School (NFTS), Venice International University, the New York Film Academy, and the EIUC Human Rights and Cinema School. Additionally, she is an alumna of Sarajevo Talents and Film Independent’s Global Media Makers Los Angeles Residency.

Her short films, including Time of the Plums (2012), Elene (2016), and A Hard Day in the Empire (2018), have been screened and awarded at film festivals such as Tribeca, BFI London, Palm Springs, Montreal World, Santa Barbara, and New York IFF, among many others. Time of the Plums has been shortlisted for the Academy Awards (Oscars). Her video works, paintings, and installations have been exhibited at Istanbul Modern, the Ankara Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, and the Hatay Archaeology Museum.

She is the author of the books Fragments of Tragedy in Postmodern Film (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014) and Gamsız Ruhlar Arasında (Among Reckless Souls, Deli Dolu Yayınları, 2024). Her academic writings have been published in peer-reviewed journals including Television and New Media, Space and Culture, Visual Studies, Critical Studies in Television, Journal of Visual Culture, and the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. Her short stories have appeared in leading Turkish literary journals such as Varlık, Notos, Sözcükler, Kurşun Kalem, Lacivert, and Öykülem.

For several years, Sezen worked in the production and art departments of feature films, documentaries, and TV dramas in Turkey (TMC, Gold Film, Stil Medya, Tims Productions, Ay Yapım), Italy (Kublai Film) and the US (Nu Image/Millennium Films). She also served as the international hospitality coordinator for the Istanbul and Antalya Film Festivals, developed filmmaking course modules for the Antalya Film Festival’s film school, and worked as a script consultant and instructor for the International Istanbul Film Festival’s industry platform, Meetings on the Bridge. Recently, she leads participatory filmmaking workshops with migrants across Europe.

Sezen continues to work as a lecturer and postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Film, Theater, Media, and Cultural Studies at Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, and co-coordinates the research project Screen’s Extractivism: Slow Production and Spectatorship, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation.