-Who is Sena Tunali?

Sena Tunali is an award-winning film producer-director and actress. She is also a prolific writer. She wrote the script named Zumrut based on a true story. She has been associated with films like “She is Mine” and “Anna.” Her short films and screenplays got her multiple awards from international film festivals around the world. “Love in Italy” is her ongoing project. She took acting classes from Hollywood professionals at the New York Film Academy in 2015. Sena has been a part of many theatrical works, including Romeo Juliet, Den of Thieves, and Proof.

-What inspired you to become a filmmaker?

I graduated from 3 universities: the first one is Wheaton College, where I got my bachelor’s degree in the field of International Relations, the second one is a conservatory that guided me to become a professional concert pianist on my life journey, and the last one is New York Film Academy that was the place where I started my film career in Los Angeles. After I graduated from Wheaton College and started working at a big company in Massachusetts, I never gave up on my Piano concerts. While I was giving concerts throughout the world, one of the head office members of the New York Film Academy saw me playing in Greece. He sent an email. In the email, he is inviting me to be a student at the New York Film Academy. He mentions he would be so happy to see me learn about acting in front of the camera and behind the camera at the Academy. When I got this email, I got so excited and answered yes to the email. I was living in Massachusetts at that time, but moving to LA seemed incredible for me. Because I was so unhappy working in a cube of a company all day long with people who are way older than my age. Some people would love to work in a cube all day, but it is not for me. I am happier while I am making art. Since my childhood, I spent most of my time telling stories with piano in concerts around the world, and being in the cube all day was a disaster for my being. So I am used to being social, telling stories, and communicating with loads of people through art. However, I always felt half only with music to tell a story. I needed other forms of art makings to feel full at my heart. The art of Filmmaking fascinated me the most because it contains all forms of art in it at some point. Music and moving pictures of amazing things on a silver screen are more than fascinating: The sound, the music, the images, the people, and the places that the pictures are unfolding all together are more than marvelous. So these combined art forms inspired me to become a filmmaker.

-Do you think the cinema can bring a change in the society?

Yes, of course. Cinema is an extremely powerful art form and tool to give/send messages to all humanity. People mostly the kids take the characters in the movies as their examples. Movies and documentaries in the film/TV industry together are very educative as well. With today’s technology and internet platforms, we have access to every project across the world, so it’s a limitless amount of opportunity to spread ideas words and artistic views. I am an environmentalist too. And participating many events as much as I can. One of my award-winning short projects called “Who is Responsible” is about global warming and the effects of global warming.

-What would you change in the world?

There are so many things I want to change. But I can give you a specific one that needs the most attention, and it’s the children across the world. So many bad guys of today were kids once in a while. So, in order to prevent bad outcomes across the world in the future, we need to educate our kids now, to be good hearted personalities. We need to make sure that they are happy, safe, living in good conditions and no more hunger. One kid’s happiness or unhappiness could change the whole world in the future.

-Where do you see the film industry going in the next 100 years?

It’s such a hard question. If it’s like 10 years I would make a guess but 100 years is tough. But I hope, the AI won’t be used to replace every kind of artmaking and filmmaking and discourage all the artists across the world.