Yonca Talu

Adjunct Faculty at PCA

YONCA TALU is a film critic and director based in Paris.

Receiving her B.F.A. in Film and Television from the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University (2016), Yonca went on to obtain her M.A. from the École normale supérieure (2019) with a thesis on the portrayal of historical trauma in the films of Alain Resnais from 1950 to 1963 and the intersections of this portrayal with modern American horror cinema. Yonca’s graduation film from Tisch, Where’s the Fire, screened at various festivals in the U.S. and received awards at the Key West Film Festival and the First Run Film Festival.

As a film critic, Yonca was the European correspondent for Film Comment, the magazine of Film at Lincoln Center, New York. She was also a regular contributor to Metrograph Journal, the publication of New York’s Metrograph Theater. She currently writes for Galerie, a new film publication and platform created by Indian Paintbrush, the production company behind Wes Anderson’s films. Her articles include interviews with artists such as Mathieu Amalric, Claire Denis, Isabelle Huppert, Anna Karina, Agnès Godard, and Philippe Rousselot.

In 2019, Yonca was engaged by the AFC (Association française des directeurs de la photographie cinématographique) to moderate the inaugural Leçon de lumière, featuring Caroline Champetier, at the La Rochelle Film Festival. In 2020, Yonca moderated two master classes: one by Juliette Binoche with Thomas Aïdan at the Premiers Plans Festival in Angers and the other with cinematographers Jonathan Ricquebourg and Elin Kirschfink at the Festival Chefs Op’ en Lumière in Chalon-sur-Saône. In 2021, Yonca moderated a master class with Bruno Nuytten at the EnergaCAMERIMAGE Film Festival in Toruń, Poland.

Yonca is also a visiting faculty member at the Paris Institute for Critical Thinking, where she teaches film theory. Recently, Yonca co-wrote and played the lead role in Guillaume Namur’s La Passante, which premiered at the 2024 Festival Côté court de Pantin. Yonca and Guillaume are currently collaborating as co-directors on a documentary feature.

Yonca teaches the Project Research Seminar.