Events, FERA Statement, News, Report
European and International Directors meet in Brussels at FERA 2023 General Assembly
40 participants from over 30 countries, directors and professional organisations’ representatives, gathered in Brussels on September 22-23 at the Federation of European Screen Directors’ General Assembly 2023 annual conference to discuss critical issues filmmakers face in Europe and across the world.
Opening the conference, Belgian directors Vanja d’Alcantara & Ann Sirot shared their filmmaking experience in Belgium, underlining how artistic and creative freedom remain the driving force of their careers and desire to create.
International guests Bryan Unger from the Directors Guild of America (DGA), Dave Forget from the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) and Gabriel Pelletier from the Association des réalisateurs et réalisatrices du Québec (ARRQ) then delved into their local priorities to support and reinforce the standing of directors in a changing industry.
This panel discussion dubbed “From streaming rights and AI to cultural policies: international perspectives on global challenges to filmmakers’ working environment and rights” highlighted a number of essential issues that the global filmmaking community seeks to address, and the specific perspective of directors in the era of global audiovisual entertainment.
FERA Chair of the board Bill Anderson and CEO Pauline Durand-Vialle then presented to members a summary of the wide range of activities implemented by the network over the last year, and participants discussed current and future priorities for European directors’ professional organisations.
It emerged from the two-day exchanges a dire need for the directors’ community to work in solidarity at local, European and international level to ensure fair and effective representation of the profession at a time when sustainable careers are still not the norm for directors in Europe: ensuring adequate working conditions and fair pay for work as well as a fair share of the economic success of their work remains an essential priority, while addressing rising attacks on artistic freedom and cultural diversity, fueled either by ideological or commercial pressure becomes more and more urgent.
European directors remain committed to fight for their authorship, artistic vision and creative space: they are the essential premise to delivering the best stories for the screen to audiences across the world.