Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Nuri Bilge Ceylan (, born 26 January 1959) is a Turkish film director, photographer, screenwriter and actor.
He won the Palme d'Or, the highest prize at the Cannes Film Festival, in 2014, for his film "Winter Sleep". He is widely regarded as one of the greatest directors of the 21st century by critics, scholars and cinephiles across the globe. 
He is married to filmmaker, photographer, and actress Ebru Ceylan, with whom he co-starred in "Climates" (2006). He directed his cousin Mehmet Emin Toprak in three films.
Early life.
Ceylan's love of photography started at the age of 15. While studying at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, he participated in cinema and photography clubs and he took passport-style photos to make some money. After graduating from university with a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering, he went to London and Kathmandu, Nepal, to decide what to do in life. Then he went back to Ankara, Turkey, to do military service. When he was in the army, he discovered that cinema would give shape to his life.
Style and themes.
Ceylan's films deal with the estrangement of the individual, existentialism, the monotony of human lives, and the details of everyday life. He uses static shots and long takes, usually in natural settings, as well as play with sound, including the use of menacing silences. He is known for filming his protagonist from behind, which, in his view, leaves the audiences to speculate on the brooding emotions of characters whose faces are obscured. Ceylan's first films were made on low budgets, with casts generally consisting of amateur actors, most of whom were his family and neighbours.
Ceylan named his ten favorite films in the "2012 Sight & Sound Greatest Films Poll": "Andrei Rublev" (1966), "Au Hasard Balthazar" (1966), "L'Avventura" (1960), "L'Eclisse" (1962), "Late Spring" (1949), "A Man Escaped" (1956), "The Mirror" (1975), "Scenes from a Marriage" (1973), "Shame" (1968), and "Tokyo Story" (1953).