Zaferhan Yumru

Originally from Turkey, Zaferhan (Zaf) Yumru (he/she/they) is a film and arts marketing professional, writer, photographer, and filmmaker. Zaf is the Director of Marketing and Communications at the International Documentary Association (IDA). They held the same position at the New Orleans Film Society/Festival between 2018-2022.

Before immigrating to the U.S. in 2017, Zaf worked for !f Istanbul Independent Film Festival for eight years as their digital marketing manager and programmer, programming mainly for the festival’s queer film slate. Zaf worked at Discovery Networks as a part of their Turkish programming and compliance team in 2014. They founded ZU, a pr & marketing agency in Istanbul dedicated to film, arts & culture, in 2015. Zaf holds a B.Sc. in engineering from Boğaziçi University in Istanbul. 

Zaf's most recent film production work includes Ma Belle, My Beauty (dir. Marion Hill) which won the NEXT Audience Award at Sundance 2020, Silent Beauty (dir. Jasmin Mara López) which premiered at Hot Docs 2022, and House of Tulip (dir. Cydney Tucker), a short documentary currently in the festival circuit. They are a member of the PATOIS Collective, which organizes the Patois New Orleans Human Rights Film Festival. 

Zaf recently moved to Los Angeles with their cat Héra, and they love spending their weekends exploring California's parks and beaches together.

Photograph by Camille Farah Lenain.