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Commissioner Kroes hosted Roundtable on release windows at MIPCOM

4 December 2012

On 9 October Commissioner Kroes and Commissioner Vassilliou’s Head of Cabinet Mr. Brunet chaired a roundtable discussion in Cannes on the “Financing and distribution of European films in the EU digital market: cross border distribution and media chronology” with representatives of the main European film organisations, well-known European film directors, producers, distributors, broadcasters, telecom operators and VOD platforms to exchange views on how EU policies can facilitate the distribution and financing of European films in the digital single market. Danish film director Annette K. Olesen was one of three film directors invited to take part. She was accompanied by FERA CEO Elisabeth O. Sjaastad as an observer.

The roundtable’s task was to examine the sustainability of existing funding models and whether the current windowing
system is still best suited to the new distribution models, taking into account changing audience behaviour (content anytime, anyhow, anywhere) and the fact that new players like the operators of VoD platforms are potential investors in film production.

A year ago, in an op-ed piece in the Danish newspaper Politiken called “Danish film is locked up in the cinema”, Olesen questioned the length of the holdback period for cinemas, which is negotiated by Danish distributors and cinema owners. An intense public debate followed Olesen’s op-ed.

(Read the op-ed in English HERE)
After initial accusations that her attitude was ”damaging the film industry”, regional giant Nordisk Film (with full vertical integration in producing, distributing and exhibiting films) spoke out in her defense and acknowledged that the situation was unfortunate for smaller artistic films.
The Danish film industry is now trying to develop release scenarios for the different ”lives” a film could potentially have.
In her remarks Annette K. Olesen said that the harsh industry reaction to her op-ed was like a ”fatwa”, but that the exhibitors must not make this an ”either – or” proposition.
Filmmakers of course want to show their films in the cinema. But there needs to be some flexibility. She expressed deep concern that companies such as Zentropa can no longer afford to invest in talent development because revenues have dropped dramatically as DVD sales fall while online distribution fails to produce any significant income at this stage.
She called for support for rights clearance of catalogue films as a means to facilitate the online availability of more films. She also pointed out that filmmakers are by nature prepared to take risks, and that the current times demand that other parts of the industry do the same – in order to find new viable solutions.
In an official statement following the roundtable, the Commissioners ”underline the importance of the cinema, and recognise that theatrical release plays a crucial role in creating the brand identity of a film and has an impact on its success on other distribution platforms.
Nonetheless, they recognise that the sector faces major challenges in terms of adapting release window practices in most Member States, and for exploiting the new opportunities offered by digital distribution”.
The results of the roundtable discussion will feed into the preparation of the forthcoming Commission proposal for a Council recommendation on European film in the digital era.
Preparatory action controversy
The Commission has already launched a ”preparatory action” Circulation of European Films in the Digital Era – a pilot support scheme for industry-led experimentation with release windows as a means to test its effect ahead of the new Creative Europe Programme, where it could become a recurring funding strand.
Speaking to Screen Emmanuel Cocq from the Commission’s MEDIA programme unit said that the objective of the preparatory action “is precisely to allow a constructive dialogue between the different segments of the value chain on these questions. We know that the issue is very sensitive (especially in France and in Germany, but not only). It will be up to the three selected projects to deal with the theatres and to find a way to include them in the game (…) and to promote a win-win model.”
These initiatives have, however, met with strong reactions, most notably from the cinemas. The leading organisations representing European exhibitors – International Union of Cinemas (UNIC), CICAE and Europa Cinemas wrote in an open letter to 4 Commissioners, the European Parliament and heads of Member States: “Safeguarding the cinema-going experience should be a top priority for European audiovisual policymakers. We are therefore concerned about continuous attempts by Brussels to decide how films should be released in Europe”.

French cinema group boicott experimentation
In France, recent experiments were met with a boicott from some exhibitors.
Paris-based Eye On Films (EoF) and the VOD platform Dailymotion joined forces to offer exclusive, free presentations on the online platform of two feature films ahead of their theatrical openings.
Brazilian filmmaker Marcos Prado’s feature debut Paraísos Artificiais (Les Paradis Artificiels) was shown Dailymotion’s site on October 29 from 22.00, ahead of French distributor Damned Distribution’s release on October 31.
According to the initiative’s two partners, over 6,000 people watched Prado’s drama and there were around 400,000 visits to the film’s trailer. This could boost the word of mouth about the film and benefit the theatrical release.
However a chain of cinemas decide to cancel its bookings of the film for 12 of the planned 15 screens just a day before the release.
Speaking to the magazine Ecran Yohann Cornu of Damned Distribution deemed it a catastrophe: “The media chronology has been broken, but now it has killed us.”
As a result Prado’s film was only shown at three independent venues from 31 October.
Commenting on the French controversy Emmanuel Cocq pointed to the fact that “Interestingly, most of the theatres which decided to cancel the release are multiplexes belonging to the same group. I believe that they have been surprised by the scope of the communication campaign surrounding the Dailymotion event and that their final decision has been led by political reasons on a sensitive issue.”
On 19 November the Independent Producers’ Syndicate (SPI) issued a press release stressing “its total and absolute opposition to film theatres being called into question, the latter being venues for the exclusive first screening of films, and demands that the public authorities and members of the profession appreciate the disastrous consequences of these actions, media stunts with destructive political and economic consequences.”

Le 9 octobre, le commissaire Kroes et le directeur de cabinet de Vassiliou, monsieur Brunet, ont tenu une table ronde à Cannes autour du «financement et de la distribution des films européens sur le marché numérique de l’UE : distribution extranationale et chronologie des médias ». Etaient présents les représentants des principales organisations européennes du cinéma, et d’importants réalisateurs, producteurs, distributeurs, diffuseurs, opérateurs téléphoniques et plateforme de films à la demande. Le but, échanger des points de vue sur la possibilité de mise en place de politiques européennes pour faciliter la distribution et le financement des films européens sur le marché du numérique. La réalisatrice danoise Annette K. Olesen était l’un des trois cinéastes invité à y prendre part. Elle était accompagnée par la directrice de Fera, Elisabeth O. Sjaastad, en qualité d’observateur. Le tour de table devait examiner la viabilité des modèles de financement existants et déterminer si les fenêtres traditionnelles de diffusion étaient toujours aussi bien adaptées aux nouveaux modèles de distribution. Question liées aux nouveaux comportements des audiences (accès à du contenu n’importe quand, de n’importe quelle manière et n’importe où) et à la possibilité que les nouveaux acteurs, comme les fournisseurs de films à la demande, puissent être de nouveaux investisseurs dans la production cinématographique.

Il y a un an, dans une chronique du journal danois Politiken titrée « Le film danois est cadenassé dans les cinémas » Olesen s’interrogeait sur la durée de la période de rétention des films, laquelle est négociée entre les distributeurs danois et les propriétaires de salles.

Un débat public intense a suivi la chronique d’Olesen

(Lisez la chronique en anglais ICI).

Suite aux accusations d’endommager l’industrie du film qui lui étaient adressées, le géant régional Nordisk Film (qui dispose d’une organisation verticale entière, qui comprend production, distribution et diffusion des films) a répondu et admis être d’accord sur un point, la situation préoccupante des petites productions artistiques.

L’industrie danoise du cinéma développe aujourd’hui des scénarios qui envisagent les différentes vies potentielles qu’un film pourrait connaitre.

Annette K. Olesen faisait remarquer que les réactions violentes de l’industrie à la suite de son article s’apparentaient à une « fatwa », mais que les diffuseurs ne devaient pas réduire sa proposition à un choix manichéen. Bien entendu, les réalisateurs souhaitent que leurs films soient diffusés dans les cinémas, mais il est nécessaire d’intégrer de la flexibilité. Elle a exprimé ses inquiétudes profondes à propos de sociétés comme Zentropa, qui ne peuvent plus se permettre d’investir dans les nouveaux talents, parce que leurs revenus ont diminués de manière drastique. Les ventes de DVD ont chuté tandis que les solutions de distribution en ligne n’ont toujours pas obtenu de résultats significatifs.

Elle a appelé à supporter le droit à faire de la place dans les catalogues de films, pour faciliter la viabilité d’un plus grand nombre de films sur le web. Elle a aussi fait remarquer que les réalisateurs sont par nature préparés à la prise de risque et que la situation actuelle devrait inciter les autres branches du secteur à en faire de même, afin de trouver des solutions durables.

Dans une déclaration qui a suivi la table ronde, les commissaires ont « souligné l’importance du cinéma et reconnu que les sorties en salles jouent un rôle déterminant dans la création de l’identité médiatique d’un film. Elles ont un impact certain sur le succès de la distribution via d’autres plateformes. Néanmoins, ils ont reconnu que le secteur devait relever des challenges importants. S’adapter aux nouvelles fenêtres de distribution qui sont utilisées dans la plupart des Etats Membres et exploiter les nouvelles opportunités qu’offre la distribution numérique.

Les conclusions de la table ronde vont permettre de préparer les propositions à venir de la Commission, concernant une recommandation du Conseil, relative aux films européens dans l’espace numérique.

Préparations de controverses

La Commission a d’ores et déjà initiée une « action préparatoire », Circulation des films européens dans l’espace numérique, un projet pilote de soutien aux expérimentations de l’industrie sur les nouvelles fenêtres de diffusion. Ceci afin de pouvoir en tester les effets avant que le nouveau programme Création Européenne ne soit mis en oeuvre, et pour qu’ils soient établis de manière pérenne.

Emmanuel Cocq, de la Commission MEDIA programme, confiait à Screen que l’objectif d’une action préparatoire de cette nature est « précisément de permettre la mise en place d’un dialogue constructif entre les différents acteurs qui interviennent sur le parcours d’un film. Nous savons que c’est une question ultra-sensible (particulièrement en France et en Allemagne, mais pas seulement). Il incombera aux trois projets sélectionnés de négocier avec les cinémas, de trouver des solutions qui les intégreront dans le jeu (!), et de trouver un modèle gagnant-gagnant. ».

Cependant, toutes ces initiatives ont rencontré de fortes résistances, la plupart émanant des cinémas. Les principaux représentants de la diffusion européenne –L’union Internationale des Cinéma (UNIC), COCAE et Europa Cinéma ont rédigé une lettre commune, adressée aux quatre membres de la Commission, au Parlement Européen, et aux principaux représentants des Etats Membres : « Préserver l’envie d’aller au cinéma devrait être la priorité absolue des législateurs européens. Nous sommes préoccupés par les prétentions régulière de Bruxelles à vouloir décider de comment les films devraient être diffusés en Europe ».

Un groupe de cinéma français expérimente le boycott

En France des expériences récentes de boycott viennent d’être lancées par certains diffuseurs. La société parisienne Eye On Film (EoF) et la plateforme de vidéo à la demande Dailymotion se sont associées, pour offrir en ligne et en exclusivité la possibilité de visionner deux longs métrages avant leur première sortie en salle. Les débuts du réalisateur brésilien Marcos Prado dans le long métrage de fiction, avec son film Paraísos Artificiais (

Selon les deux partenaires à l’origine de l’initiative, plus de 6000 personnes auraient regardé le film de Marcos Prado et environ 400.000 auraient regardé la bande annonce. Succès qui pourrait avoir un effet certain sur le bouche à oreille, et donc bénéficier à la sortie en salle. Cependant, un propriétaire de salles a décidé, la veille de la sortie, de réduire la diffusion du film à 3 salles au lieu des 15 salles initialement prévues.

Yohann Cornu, de Damned Distribution confiait au magasine Ecran qu’il s’agissait là d’une véritable catastrophe : « La chronologie traditionnelle du parcours du film a été brisée, et cela nous a tués ». Finalement, depuis le 31 octobre, le film a été diffusé seulement dans trois salles indépendantes. A propos de la controverse française, Emmanuel Cocq pointait du doigt le fait que « il est intéressant de noter que la plupart des cinémas qui ont décidés de retirer le film de l’affiche sont des multiplexes qui appartiennent tous au même groupe ». Je crois qu’ils ont été surpris par l’envergure de la campagne de communication qui a accompagné l’évènement sur Dailymotion, et que leur décision est d’ordre politique, à propos d’un sujet sensible. »

Le 19 novembre, le syndicat des producteurs indépendants (SPI) a publié un communiqué de presse soulignant « son opposition totale et absolue à la remise en question des sorties en salles, qui doivent demeurer les lieux où se font les premières et les exclusivités, et demande à ce que les autorités publiques et les membres de la profession mesurent les conséquences désastreuses de telles actions, qui pourraient enclencher une cascade de destructions politiques et économiques ».

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Elisabet Gustafsson

Honorary Treasurer

Swedish Film Directors, Sweden

Elisabet Gustafsson is a Swedish director and scriptwriter based in Stockholm with a foot in Paris. She just finished her documentary ”Djenné Djenno” that was shot in Mali where she meets her Swedish cousin and childhood idol, who runs a hotel in the desert. Her previous productions are however mainly fiction and her debut feature, “Krakel Spektakel” (2014), was based on Swedish classic children’s books by Lennart Hellsing. Elisabet has always had an international approach as a director and three of her short films have been international co-productions and shot in Estonia and France. Today, she’s in preproduction for a new short, “The Guinea-pig”, based on a true story about a guinea-pig who flew over the city of Stockholm in a homemade balloon. She is also developing a feature film, based on short novels by and together with the acclaimed Swedish writer and actor Jonas Karls

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Chiara Sambuchi

ExCo Member (co-opted)

AG DOK, Germany

Chiara Sambuchi was born in Pesaro, Italy. She has directed more than forty documentaries and reportages for several European broadcasters like ARD, ARTE, ZDF, YLE, RAI,. Her feature length documentary films “Wrong planet”, “Good morning Africa!”, “City of women, today”, “Lost children” were and are still presented at major film festivals around the world. She has produced and shot documentary films in post conflict regions of Uganda, in rural areas of Ruanda, in refugee camps at the European borders during the refugees’ humanitarian emergency in 2014 and 2015. Her “Lost children. Thirty thousand minors missing” has been nominated at Prix Europa 2017 for the best European intercultural television programme of the year and got the honorable mention at the Prix Media of the French “Enfance Majuscule”. Her last feature lenght documentary film “The deal” about arms of the Nigerian mafia in Europe premiered in April 2022 at CPH:DOX. Chiara Sambuchi also contributes as speaker at panels and seminars related to the topics of her work, organized by universities, European institutions and NGOs

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Klemen Dvornik

ExCo Member (co-opted)

Directors Guild of Slovenia (DSR), Slovenia

Klemen Dvornik (1977) graduated in film and TV-directing at AGRFT (The Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television) in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Until now, he’s directed more than 500 shows of various genres and more than 20 documentaries, short & full-length films and live concerts and has received nine national and international awards (best film, best documentary, student award, the audience award).He’s been working at the AGRFT since 2010.
In autumn 2017, he was appointed Assistant Professor of television directing.He is currently President of the Alliance of Slovenian Associations of Filmmakers and Chairman of Supervisory Board of AIPA, Collecting Society of Authors, Performers and Film Producers of Audiovisual Works of Slovenia.

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Martijn Winkler

ExCo Member

Dutch Directors Guild, The Netherlands

 

Martijn Winkler (1978) is a writer, director and digital creative, working at the intersection of online, cross media and linear audiovisual storytelling since 2003. International and award winning productions (including two Rose d’Ors, an Emmy, a Webby, and an International Format Award at MIPCOM), often with an innovative and/or online component. His latest series Heat, a climate change thriller, was the most awarded short form drama series of 2021.
Martijn is former chairman and current board member of the Dutch Directors Guild, member of EFA and on the Advisory Board of the VU University Amsterdam, department of Arts and Cultural Sciences. He is also co-founder and creative director of production company VERTOV and head of social media and strategy at its sister company, Coebergh Communications & PR in Amsterdam.

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Salvador Simó Busom

ExCo Member

ACCIÓN (Spanish Association of Film Directors / Asociación de directores y directoras de cine), Spain

My purpose for aiming to be a member of the Executive Comittee is to tighten the relations between Spanish and European directors. Our association of directors is been in the last years quite present in the developing of the laws and legal canvas of the film industry in Spain, in my opinion is time that the voice of the Spanish directors is also heard in Europe. Is been in the last years that in our country us the directors had begun to feel the belonging to a community, that is not just composed by few more known names but also a huge amount of talented directors that share a common element, the passion for telling stories.

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Ida Grøn

ExCo Member

The Association of Danish Film Directors, Denmark

I’m a European who was broad up on a cross road of farmers, academics and artists from different cultures and moving quite a bit. So I became an independent documentary film director educated at the NFTS in the UK. I’ve exhibited the VR-real life video installation Keep in Touch (2008) at the National Gallery of Denmark and travelled the world with my professional debut “The Kid and the Clown” (2011). Since then I’ve made a lot of national TV, lately the tv-success “William – The Impossible Choice” (2022). My creative feature “Staybehind – My Grandfathers Secret War” (2017) created a lot of attention on Stay Behind intelligence in the broad Danish public. At the moment I’m in the development of two creative feature documentaries supported by the Danish Film Institute and an art film. Since 2019 I’ve been on the board of the association of Danish Film Directors where my focus is to expose and bring down the amount of unpaid work of film directors, and the continued existence and development of film as art form. Recently I initiated a collaboration with International Media Support to help Ukrainian filmmakers making/finishing their films in their current situation through an exchange with Danish filmmakers and production houses

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Eugenia Arsenis

ExCo Member

Greek Directors’ Guild, Greece

Eugenia Arsenis
Dr. Eugenia Arsenis, Director – Dramaturg, is the delegate of the Greek Directors’ Guild at the Federation of European Screen Directors since 2016. She has collaborated with international cultural organizations, Royal Albert Hall – BBC Proms, National Greek Television, San Francisco Opera Center, Greek National Opera etc. As a writer, her play, “Women of Passion, Women of Greece”, travelled the past few years from Australia to India and, it has been recently adapted for film.
She has directed documentaries and, she recently directed, adapted and co-produced a film adaptation of the first American play written on the Greek War of Independence. Speaker at international conferences. Lecturer at a numerous Universities and Conservatories around the world. Designer of academic programmes. She was Coordinator and Dramaturg of the Experimental Stage of the Greek National Opera and Dramaturg of the New York Center for the Contemporary Opera. She was the President of the Hellenic Center of the International Theatre Institute, Board Member of the Greek Film Center, Board Member of the National Theatre of Northern Greece and Registrar of Public Relations of the Hellenic Theatre Studies Association.
She is a Member of the Cultural Committee of the Hellenic–American Chamber of Commerce and, the Creative Director of the international forum Artivism Drives Democracy. Her education includes Dramaturgy and Directing at Royal Holloway University of London, Opera Directing at Boston University, Philosophy at University College London, Film Directing and Screenwriting at the New York Film Academy, Music Studies and, she holds a Doctorate in Philosophical Aesthetics from the University of London. Holder of numerous international scholarships among them, Fulbright Scholarship for Artists and Art Scholars.

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Martijn Winkler

ExCo Member

Dutch Directors Guild, The Netherlands

Martijn Winkler (1978) is a writer, director and digital creative, working at the intersection of online, cross media and linear audiovisual storytelling since 2003. International and award winning productions (including two Rose d’Ors, an Emmy, a Webby, and an International Format Award at MIPCOM), often with an innovative and/or online component. His latest series Heat, a climate change thriller, was the most awarded short form drama series of 2021.
Martijn is former chairman and current board member of the Dutch Directors Guild, member of EFA and on the Advisory Board of the VU University Amsterdam, department of Arts and Cultural Sciences. He is also co-founder and creative director of production company VERTOV and head of social media and strategy at its sister company, Coebergh Communications & PR in Amsterdam.

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Bill Anderson

Chairman

Directors UK, United Kingdom

 

After university Bill worked for two years on the Fulmar Alpha oil-rig in the North Sea whilst weaning himself off writing dialogue-driven TV dramas like Nailed and lurching towards telling stories with pictures. Creatures of Light, his graduation film from the National Film and Television School won the Chaplin Award for Best First Feature at the Edinburgh Film Festival.
In a TV directing career spanning 30 years, workplace dramas include Mr Selfridge, The Mill and BAFTA-nominated Dockers (the story of their strike dramatised by a writers group of sacked Liverpool dockers, executive produced by their union for Channel 4); historical epics include Daniel Craig in Sword of Honour and Alex Kingston in Boudica (co- produced by MediaPro Studios and shot in Romania in 2002); detective dramas include the pilot of Lewis and writing and directing RTS and Prix Italia-nominated Guardians.
In stark contrast to his work on Spooks and Dr Who, Abrams Press have just published Bill’s first work of prose The Idle Beekeeper, a book about empathy (and raising bees).

 

 

Association of Film Directors (ARRF)

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Verband Filmregie Österreich (Austrian Directors Guild)

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     Screen Directors Guild of Ireland

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Valeria Simonte

Communications & Office Coordinator

Originally from Italy, Valeria is currently based in Brussels and works as FERA Communications and Office Coordinator. She has previously worked as Communications intern for sustainable mobility, as well as in regional development. Valeria is passionate about cinema, art and media.

Associazione Nazionale Autori Cinematografici (ANAC)

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Guilde des Auteurs Réalisateurs de Reportages et Documentaires/ GARRD

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Rättighetsbolaget /Fackförbundet Scen & Film

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U2R – Union des réalisatrices et réalisateurs

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Swedish Film Directors (SFR)/Fackförbundet Scen & Film

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Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques (SACD)

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Pauline Durand-Vialle

CEO

Originally from Paris, France, Pauline has worked in film distribution and international sales. She joined FERA from her previous position as Deputy Manager in charge of European Affairs at La Société des réalisateurs de films (SRF), where she worked for five years. She is the Chief Executive of FERA since February 2014, and took over the European Audiovisual Observatory’s Advisory Committee Chair in December 2020.

ACCIÓN (Spanish Association of Film Directors / Asociación de directores y directoras de cine)

info@acciondirectores.com

acciondirectores.com

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Marco Bellocchio

Marco Bellochio began studying philosophy in Milan but then decided to enter film school. His first film Fists in the Pocket (1965) was funded by family members and shot on family property. He made a big impact on radical Italian cinema in the mid-sixties. In 1968 he joined the Communist Union, and began to make politically militant cinema such as China is Near (1967). In 1991 he won the Silver Bear at the Berlinale for his film The Conviction. The Wedding Director (2006) and Vincere (2009) were both screened at the Cannes Film Festival, the latter in the main competition. Bellochio was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 2011 Venice Film Festival.

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Isabel Coixet

Isabel Coixet started making films when they gave her an 8mm camera as a gift for her first communion. After a BA degree in History by the University of Barcelona, she worked in advertising and spot writing. She won several accolades for her spots and finally founded her own production company in 2000, Miss Wasabi Films.

In 1988, Coixet made her debut as a screenwriter and helmer in “Demasiado viejo para morir joven”, which earned her the nomination for Best New Director in the Goya Awards.

International success came in 2003 with the intimate drama “My life without me”, a film based on a short story by Nancy Kincaid where Sarah Polley plays Ann, a young mother who decides to hide to her family that she has a terminal cancer. This Spanish-Canadian coproduction was highly praised at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Coixet has also made outstanding documentaries such as “Invisibles”, a selection of Panorama for the 2007 Berlin Film Festival, on Médicos sin fronteras or “Journey to the Heart of Torture”, filmed in Sarajevo during the Balkan War and awarded in October 2003 in the Human Rights Film Festival.

Isabel also directs Spain in a day, a collective film that shows how was a day in the life of our country, specifically on October 24, 2015, through images recorded by anonymous people through their tablets, phones or cameras. Based on Ridley Scott’s idea, “Life in a Day”, and with music by Alberto Iglesias, it premiered at the 2016 San Sebastian International Film Festival.

From Miss Wasabi Films, Coixet decides to support the production of projects by new women directors to favor the visibility of works directed by women in the world of cinema. A documentary and a short film have been produced within this initiative, as well as a fiction feature film and another short film in development.

Her first series, “Foodie Love”, explores the most essential of human relationships through the encounters of a couple and the delicacy and diversity of the food. It premiered on HBO in December 2019.

“Nieva en Benidorm” is her latest feature film. Produced by El Deseo and filmed in Benidorm during the first months of 2020, the film stars Timothy Spall, Sarita Choudhury, Carmen Machi, Anna Torrent and Pedro Casablanc. It is currently in the post-production phase.

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Heddy Honigmann

Heddy Honigmann has lived and worked in the Netherlands since 1978. Since then she has made a film nearly every year, both documentaries and feature films. Music often plays a major role in her films, from The Underground Orchestra (1997, about musicians in the Paris metro) to Crazy (1999, in which Dutch Blue Helmets talk about their favorite music during peace missions) and Around the World in 50 Concerts (about the Concertgebouw Orchestra, opening film of IDFA in 2014). Honigmann was guest of honor at IDFA in 2014, with a Masterclass, retrospective and Top 10 of her favorite documentaries. In 2015 she became a member of the Academy of Arts at the KNAW and in 2016 she received the Oeuvre Award from the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds. Her long documentaries Crazy and Forever received Golden Calves (the Dutch equivalent of the Academy Awards). Crazy also won IDFA’s Audience Award.

Picture: Courtesy of Unknown

Michaël R. Roskam

Michaël R. Roskam attended St. Lucas Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, where he studied painting and contemporary art, and the Binger Film Institute in Amsterdam where he graduated in 2005 with a master’s degree in script writing. After several jobs as a journalist for Flemish newspaper De Morgen and a copywriter, he directed his first short film entitled Haun in 2002. This was followed by Carlo (2004), another short film which won the Audience Award at Leuven International Short Film Festival. In 2005, he made The One Thing To Do and, in 2007, Today is Friday, based on an Ernest Hemingway short story, that was filmed in Los Angeles. Roskam made his feature film debut with Bullhead  (prod. Savage Film) which was released in 2011. In 2012 the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He was named by Variety one of the “10 directors to watch”. For Bullhead he received the Magritte Award for Best Screenplay and the André Cavens Award for Best Film by the Belgian Film Critics Association (UCC), among over 35 other international awards. In June 2012, Roskam was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Bullhead became a major critical and commercial success, while launching the careers of actor Matthias Schoenaerts and DOP Nicolas Karakatsanis, who have both become Roskam’s close collaborators. In 2014 The Drop (prod. Chernin Entertainment), Roskam’s first US-based film, was released worldwide through Fox Searchlight, featuring Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, the late James Gandolfini and Matthias Schoenaerts. In 2015 he directed the first two episodes of Berlin Station, a television series produced by Anonymous Content. His next European feature film, Le Fidèle (prod. Savage Film & Stone Angels), featuring Matthias Schoenaerts and Adèle Exarchopoulos, will start shooting in Spring 2016.

Picture: Courtesy of Unknown

Charles Sturridge

Charles Sturridge’s work includes the multi award winning adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s ‘Brideshead Revisited’ with Jeremy Irons and Laurence Olivier, ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ with Ted Danson, Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif. In 2000 he wrote and directed ‘Longitude’ (C4) with Michael Gambon and Jeremy Irons and in 2002 ‘Shackleton’ with Ken Branagh   both winning Best Drama Serial BAFTA’s. In 2009 he directed ’The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency’ and the ‘The Road To Coronations Street’ which won the RTS and BAFTA awards for Best Single Drama. In 2012 he wrote and directed Daphne Du Maurier’s ‘The Scapegoat with Matthew Rhys and in 2013/14 he directed episodes of ‘Dates’ and “Da Vinci’s Demons’. His most recent production was ‘Churchill’s Secret’ starring Michael Gambon, Lindsay Duncan and Romola Garai. His films include: Runners, A Handful of Dust, Where Angels Fear to Tread, Aria, Lassie and the BAFTA winning Fairytale, A True Story.

Picture: Courtesy of Unknown

István Szabó

István Szabó was the President of FERA from 2008 to 2012. István Szabó was born in Budapest, in 1938. He was an assistant film director and later a film director of MAFILM Hungarian Film Studios until the winding-up of the company. His films have won several international film awards such as the nominations of the American Film Academy for four times for the films : ‘Confidence’, ‘Mephisto’, ‘Colonel Redl’, and ‘Hanussen’, and the Academy has nominated his film ‘Being Julia’ for best female artist. His films have been nominated twice for the Golden Globe award (Colonel Redl, Sunshine). ‘Mephisto’ has won the Academy award and ‘Colonel Redl’ has won the British Academy Award. ‘Mephisto’ has won the David di Donatello Award as well; ‘Sunshine’ has won the Canadian Grand Prize. The scripts of ‘Sweet Emma’, ‘Dear Böbe’ and ‘Sunshine’ won the prizes of European Film Academy for best screenplay. ‘The Day of Daydreaming’ and ’25 Fireman’s Street’ have won the prizes of Locarno Film Festival; ‘Father’ has won the Grand Prix of Moscow Film Festival; ‘Confidence’ and ‘Sweet Emma’, ‘Dear Böbe’ have won the prizes of Berlin Film Festival for best director; ‘Mephisto’ and ‘Colonel Redl’ have won the prizes at the Cannes Film Festival. From the enlisted films above many of them have won the prizes of Hungarian Film Critics and the prizes of Hungarian Film Week.

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