HONORS

Over the past years, the artist’s work has reached an audience of approximately 62 million people, exclusively through renowned print media, TV, and radio talk shows. His projects have been prominently featured in portraits and in-depth interviews, generating extensive public discourse and recognition. With the inclusion of digital and social media platforms, the total reach has expanded to an estimated 248 million people.

Selcuk Cara was honored as a bestselling author shortly after the release of his autobiographical study, a comprehensive analysis of society’s issues with racism and antisemitism, based on over 30 years of research. The book quickly made it to the Spiegel bestseller list.

• His autobiographical study was added to the library of the Haus der Wannseekonferenz (Joseph Wulf Mediothek), a memorial and educational center dedicated to Holocaust history.
• His autobiographical study was also included in the library of the International Tracing Service (ITS), with the ITS archive holdings being recognized as part of the UNESCO World Heritage.

Multisensory Installation Artist

• Süddeutsche Zeitung (South German Newspaper):
  "Selcuk Cara: Between genius and madness - Fabulous egomaniac."
• Leipziger Volkszeitung praised his Installation for its excellence:
  "The program booklet is right: It really is a 'Gesamtkunstwerk' (universal artwork) what the director and former opera singer Selcuk Cara has tailored to the heroic tenor Andreas Schager. The applause for the scenes and the bursting bravos want to take no end. Schager himself has to brake the audience to be able to continue at all."
• ARD - Studio Prague called the performance:
  "Fabulous, the production is beautiful."
  "This performance is fantastic. Truly an experience."
• Opera Magazine described the production as:
  "An incredibly coherent, highly emotional production that deserves every form of superlative. History was made with this Richard Wagner opera premiere."
• NDR Culture reviewed:
  "Poignant, dense, dramatic! ... Plays and sings as if in a trance."
• Hamburger Abendblatt noted:
  "For Selcuk Cara: reduction is one of the most powerful stylistic devices."
• nmz highlighted:
  "Thus began a production of Udo Zimmermann's 'White Rose' that impressed all the senses.
  If Zimmermann's examination of the resistance against Hitler's Germany is in itself a moving, even oppressive work, the impression is reinforced by Selcuk Cara's staging."
• ARD German Television praised his approach to theater:
  "Easy answers? Not with Selcuk Cara: - he makes exciting, rousing theater! Brecht would have liked that!"
• Brecht Research / International Brecht Society commented on his achievement:
  "To open a Brecht festival in an unusual place so brilliantly, is an outstanding achievement."

• Qualified for the 98th Academy Awards (Oscars 2026)
• Winner: North American Movie Awards, USA
• Winner: American Movie Awards, USA
• Winner: Alaska International Film Award, USA
• Grand Prize: Flickers Rhode Island International Film Festival, USA
• Winner: Panavision Award, USA
• Winner: Sose International Film Festival, Yerevan, Armenia
• Finalist: Eindhovens Film Festival, Netherlands
• Semi-Finalist: Hollywood Screenings Film Festival, USA
• Semi-Finalist: Los Angeles CineFest, USA
• Semi-Finalist: Chicago International Arthouse Film Festival, USA
• Official Selection: Filmfestival Max-Ophüls-Preis, Germany
• Official Selection: Montreal World Film Festival, Canada
• Official Selection: New York City International Film Festival, USA
• Official Selection: UK Film Festival – British Film Festival London, United Kingdom
• Official Selection: Michael Ballhaus Cinematography Award – First Steps Award, Germany
• Official Selection: Montreal International Independent Film Festival, Canada
• Official Selection: Toronto International Women Film Festival, Canada
• Official Selection: CamerImage – International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography, Poland
• Official Selection: Navi Mumbai - Home of Bollywood International Film Festival, India
• Official Selection: Nicaragua International Film Festival, Nicaragua
• Official Selection: Delhi International Film Festival, India
• Official Selection: Auckland International Film Festival, NZ
• Official Selection: Dhaka International Film Festival, Bangladesh
• Official Selection: Festival Internazionale del Cinema di Salerno, Italy

• “A visual poem. I haven’t really seen a film like this before.”
  (New York, USA)
• "It is an amazing work of art with breathtaking cinematography."
  (Florida, USA)
• “This film had incredible production value. I can totally see why it won a Panavision Award.”
  (Utah, USA)
• “Your award-winning work represents the absolute finest of several hundred submissions received from over two dozen countries around the globe. Reflecting the highest degree of excellence, [...] We congratulate you and praise the talent and craftsmanship manifested in your outstanding work.”
  (Alaska International Film Award)
• "The outstanding cinematography strikes one from the very beginning. For its outstanding visuals, for its poetic monologue, for its absolute mastery of building up the suspense and before everything else, for its genius poetic taste, ‘[...] A truly intense cinematic experience, hard to forget!"
  (tmff - review)
• “Director Selcuk Cara does a masterful job of translating an otherwise simple premise into an almost lyrically-toned work of art. This series of static elements are perfectly interwoven and create a very pressing atmosphere of suspense. All of these elements create a really poetic and memorable flavor. All in all, it is a masterpiece, and without doubt one of the best entries at our festival in recent months. Its capability to transmit messages of such beautiful simplicity, that stay with us for a long time after the film has ended, is one of the reasons why we still love cinema.”
  (Bucharest, Romania)
• " (…) to see films made primarily for aesthetic and philosophical reasons rather than commercial profit. The festival would like to approach the caliber of films made by such great directors as Eisenstein, Antonioni, Fellini, Tarkovsky, Godard, Truffaut, Pasolini, Kurosawa, Buñuel, Norshteyn."
  (Chicago, USA)