Announcing Mountainfilm's 2025 Emerging Filmmaker Fellow: Elif Koyutürk Hazen

Telluride, Colorado (September 17, 2025) – Mountainfilm has selected Elif Koyutürk Hazen as the 2025 Emerging Filmmaker Fellow for her in-progress documentary Guardians of Anatolia. The film follows a women-led Sarıkeçili nomadic family, the last of their kind in Türkiye, as they migrate across the Taurus Mountains. Capturing their seasonal journey, rituals and deep bond with nature, Guardians of Anatolia offers a poignant look at a vanishing culture and a celebration of ancestral wisdom.

As an Emerging Filmmaker Fellow, Hazen will receive mentorship, development support and festival networking opportunities from the Mountainfilm team, including connections with the Mountainfilm community in Telluride over Memorial Day weekend.

Born in Istanbul to journalist and humanitarian parents, Hazen is a filmmaker, cinematographer and photographer whose work bridges cultural heritage and contemporary visual storytelling. Her films explore the relationship between people and the natural world, often highlighting communities whose traditions are at risk of disappearing.

With Guardians of Anatolia, now in post-production, she draws on deep roots in Anatolia and long-term relationships with the Sarıkeçili community. Her fluency in Turkish and lived experience migrating alongside the Yörüks bring authenticity and intimacy to the project, underscoring her commitment to preserving the wisdom of one of the last matriarchal nomadic tribes in the world.

“We are excited to welcome Elif as this year’s Emerging Filmmaker Fellow. Elif is a gifted artist and creative storyteller as reflected in her film Guardians of Anatolia. The film embodies Mountainfilm’s core principle of ‘celebrating indomitable spirit,’ sharing the story of nomadic people whose way of life contrasts with today’s fast-paced, technology-driven world. We can’t wait to see the film come to life!” says Crystal Merrill, festival director.

"As a filmmaker and artist, I care deeply for people who live in harmony with nature—the way they dress in their unique colors, how they treat the soil, the water and each other. I believe these cultures must be protected as whole living organisms—not fragmented or romanticized, but honored in the full wholeness of how they exist on the land. Migrating with the Yörüks changed me. I found parts of myself in their colors, in their poetic silences that speak louder than words. They are the protectors of the Taurus Mountains in Türkiye—where they walk, wildfires do not follow, but biodiversity blooms. Seeing how their goats regenerate the land opened my eyes to a different kind of ecological wisdom. I wanted to create a film that lets people walk beside them, if only for a moment—to be washed in their poetry, to witness the way they look at a goat, or hold water in their palm. To be recognized by Mountainfilm at this stage of the journey is deeply empowering—especially as a Turkish woman director telling this story on a global platform. I’m honored to walk into this circle, and I carry the voices of the nomads with me," says Hazen.

Mountainfilm launched the Emerging Filmmaker Fellowship program in 2018 to provide support and resources to up-and-coming filmmakers working on their first or second film. Elif Koyutürk Hazen is the eighth Emerging Filmmaker Fellow. Previous fellows include: 

Kendi King, From Rodeo to Polo (Mountainfilm 2025)
Mitra Ghaffari, Bicycle Island (Mountainfilm 2024)
Alina Simone, Black Snow
Fiz Olajide, Underground Railroad Ride
Madeline Gordon, The Ark
Gabrielė Urbonaitė, Solastalgia (Mountainfilm 2021)
Ahmed Mansour, Brooklyn Inshallah (Mountainfilm 2019)
Matthew Maxwell, Finding Home in Boomtown (Mountainfilm 2019)

About Mountainfilm: Established in 1979, Mountainfilm is one of North America’s longest-running documentary film festivals, held annually over Memorial Day weekend in Telluride, Colorado. Mountainfilm is dedicated to using the power of film, art and ideas to inspire audiences to create a better world. The festival offers an immersive experience featuring a wide range of filmmakers, speakers, adventurers and activists in addition to screening cutting-edge, award-winning documentary films from around the world. Mountainfilm is an Academy Award® Qualifying Festival in the Documentary Short Film category. Mountainfilm on Tour also reaches audiences year-round through its global film program and through Mountainfilm for Students, an educational outreach initiative for youth. Simply put, Mountainfilm has the power to change lives. To learn more, visit www.mountainfilm.org. To join the conversation, please read Mountainfilm’s news and follow @mountainfilm on Instagram, Threads, Facebook and LinkedIn.