FERA General Assembly in Málaga 2024

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From 1 to 3 March 2024, 40 participants from over 25 countries, Screen Directors and representatives of professional organisations, gathered in the Andalusian city of Málaga for the FERA General Assembly, hosted by Spanish FERA member ACCIÓN and Málaga Film Festival at the University of Málaga. The elections of the new FERA Executive Committee were also held during that meeting.

 

FERA’s 2024 General Assembly began on 1 March with a public opening conference, which was also part of the Málaga Film Festival programme. Participants were welcomed by Juan Antonio Vigar, the Director of Málaga Film Festival, followed by a presentation on “Artificial intelligence from a legal point of view” by Antonio Muñoz Vico, Garrigues law firm partner. The intervention, which focused on the multi-faceted legal implications of the use of AI in the cultural and creative sectors, was facilitated by ICAA, the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts, an entity of the Spanish Ministry of Culture.

The second part of the opening conference consisted in a panel discussion dubbed “The situation of moral and economic rights for directors in Spain. Collective Management Organisations DAMA and SGAE”. The panellists were Ricardo Gómez, DAMA general secretary and director of legal services; Amparo Arenas, SGAE Andalucia; and Ana Arrieta, ACCIÓN legal advisor. The panel was moderated by Spanish filmmaker Pilar Pérez Solano, ACCIÓN President.

On 2 March, FERA’s GA programme also included two publicly accessible roundtable discussions. The first one, “(Re-)Connecting with Audiences in Europe. The role of the festivals”, brought together Spanish film festival directors Manuel Cristóbal (Seville European Film Festival), Juan Antonio Vigar (Málaga Film Festival) and Enrique Iznaola (Almería International Film Festival) for an exchange with Swedish film producer and distributor Mattias Nohrborg (TriArt Film) and Fernando Riera (A Contracorriente Films).

They discussed how festivals support new Screen Directors, the role of the Directors at festivals – which often requires travelling to promote their films at screenings without remuneration and the collaboration between producers, distributors, filmmakers and festivals to bring films to festival audiences. Interestingly, all agreed that it can be easier for first time Directors to get their film screened at a festival, due to targeted support initiatives and festival sidebars, than it is for Directors working on their third feature or beyond. This first roundtable was moderated by Pilar Pérez Solano in tandem with FERA Executive Board member Elisabet Gustafsson.

The public part of the FERA GA concluded with a directors’ roundtable on “Directing and filmmaking in Spain”, moderated again by Pérez Solano. The filmmakers participating in the roundtable were: Liz Lobato, Cesar Martínez, Giovanna Ribes, Antonio Hens and Salvador Simó.

The discussion revealed how fragmented the Spanish film funding system is, with the financial support varying heavily from region to region, potentially putting certain local filmmakers at a disadvantage.

FERA members discussed issues such as freedom of speech for directors in their country, as well as the many challenges brought by global streamers and AI technology for the future of a diverse audiovisual creation across Europe. Taking stock of the evolution of the European authors’ rights and audiovisual policy framework, they discussed upcoming European elections, EU institutions agenda and priorities for their next mandate.

On 2 March, the General Assembly delegates unanimously ratified the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) joining FERA as Associate Member. The DGC is the 50th association to join FERA.

On the same day, they also elected their new Executive Committee for 2024-2026:

Chair: Bill Anderson (United Kingdom)
Honorary Treasurer: Elisabet Gustafsson (Sweden)
Klemen Dvornik (Slovenia)
Ida Grøn (Denmark)
Katarzyna Klimkiewicz (Poland)
Chiara Sambuchi (Germany)
Elisabeth O. Sjaastad (Norway)
Jean-François Fontanel (France) – co-opted
Giovanna Ribes (Spain) – co-opted
Martijn Winkler (The Netherlands) – co-opted