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Artistic Freedom, News

FERA Statement: EU Filmmakers Join in Support to Budapest University of Theatre and Film Arts’ Students and Senate

11 September 2020

Just like freedom of artistic expression requires artists to be independent and free of governmental censorship, political interference or pressures of non-state actors, sound academic practice requires universities’ academic freedom and institutional autonomy.

Both are key indicators are the quality of the national social contract.

We join our Hungarian Film Directors colleagues in supporting the students and Senate of the Budapest University of Theatre and Film Arts in their actions against a re-organisation which has effectively resulted in the university’s loss of academic autonomy.

This situation illustrates growing pressure on our common EU democratic standards and cannot be overlooked.

We call on European institutions to insist on a prompt resolution of the situation with the Hungarian government.

 

Contact: Pauline Durand-Vialle, CEO – pdv@filmdirectors.eu – +32 551 08 94

 

Download the Statement PDF version here.

Photo by Lazar Todoroff

 

UPDATE – 20/10/2020

 

Since we put up our statement in support of SZFE, we have received reports of the following developments:

SZFE has a new board of trustees, lead by Attila Vidnyászky, who has replaced the chancellor of the university Lajos Vonderviszt, whose contract runs until the end of 2020 with Colonel Gábor Szarka, a former defense minister’s chief of staff.

The university’s online infrastructure, including its website, Facebook page and emails are now under the control of the new leadership.

The students continue to protest and occupy the building of the university, reportedly refusing entry to Colonel Gábor Szarka after his appointment as university chancellor. Students ask for the departure of the new board of trustees and refuse to accept the new form of operation until the government fulfills their demands aimed at guaranteeing SZFE’s autonomy. Their blockade has lasted for 50 days now.

Reportedly, the internet connection in two campus buildings of SZFE was cut on October 13 as students held a forum.

The teachers and some of the university staff and employees went on strike on October 1st, in protest against the new board and officials whose appointments they considere illegitimate. The main goal is to regain academic freedom and autonomy.

SZFE has received support nationally, from sudents, the artworld of Hungary and many civilians, and internationally in statements of support and photos.

 

Background Information

 

IN THE PRESS

 

September 3 – 3sat

https://www.3sat.de/kultur/kulturzeit/ungarn-studentenprotest-100.html?fbclid=IwAR2rwQ8DkKs1pXyIoy4BIjV-3PU2PYcD9WLkTaie9_cyBkEgg_k3977hmqI

 

September 3 – Human Rights Watch

https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/09/03/hungary-continues-attacks-academic-freedom

 

September 4 – Euronews

https://www.euronews.com/2020/09/04/hungarian-students-blockade-university-in-protest-against-orban-reforms?fbclid=IwAR2rwQ8DkKs1pXyIoy4BIjV-3PU2PYcD9WLkTaie9_cyBkEgg_k3977hmqI

 

September 5 – Nachtkritik

https://www.nachtkritik.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=18537%3Asolidaritaet-fuer-universitaets-besetzung-in-budapest&catid=126%3Ameldungen-k&Itemid=100089&fbclid=IwAR2rwQ8DkKs1pXyIoy4BIjV-3PU2PYcD9WLkTaie9_cyBkEgg_k3977hmqI

 

September 5 – The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/sep/05/pieces-of-a-woman-director-gender-neutral-awards-a-logical-move?fbclid=IwAR2rwQ8DkKs1pXyIoy4BIjV-3PU2PYcD9WLkTaie9_cyBkEgg_k3977hmqI

 

September 5 – Trouw

https://www.trouw.nl/buitenland/hongaarse-theaterstudenten-bezetten-universiteitspand-uit-protest-tegen-inmenging-kunstonderwijs~b3566c76/?fbclid=IwAR2rwQ8DkKs1pXyIoy4BIjV-3PU2PYcD9WLkTaie9_cyBkEgg_k3977hmqI&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fl.facebook.com%2F

 

September 6 – ABC News

https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Entertainment/wireStory/hungarys-theater-film-college-protests-loss-autonomy-72850475?fbclid=IwAR1aOq2ZoWite6o_RuPAYB_nUaDL7aKHIrt8m35plrxiJkuV6ELAzq7txB4

 

September 6 – New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/06/world/europe/hungary-students-blockade-orban.html

 

September 6 – Washington post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/hungarys-theater-and-film-college-protests-a-loss-of-autonomy/2020/09/06/16b11204-f059-11ea-8025-5d3489768ac8_story.html?fbclid=IwAR1aOq2ZoWite6o_RuPAYB_nUaDL7aKHIrt8m35plrxiJkuV6ELAzq7txB4

 

September 7 – BBC News

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54052182?fbclid=IwAR1aOq2ZoWite6o_RuPAYB_nUaDL7aKHIrt8m35plrxiJkuV6ELAzq7txB4

 

September 7 – Le Monde

https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2020/09/07/en-hongrie-la-faculte-de-theatre-et-de-cinema-visee-a-son-tour-par-viktor-orban_6051264_3210.html?fbclid=IwAR3d-tv36GgMuBq3mpG-dPsnAtB99io1AHW-BkcXrC2XzsHmVUjc5vIlpBE

 

September 14 – Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung

https://cz.boell.org/en/node/2021?fbclid=IwAR0SuH8xc08TiIoCw7wTX4hGwOy512xmGA_rf7DLEWvoVJyKOAEXPylKFBA

 

September 18 – Der Standard

https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000120085262/orbans-uni-trick-regisseur-laszlo-bagossy-ruft-eu-an

 

September 30 – France 24

https://www.france24.com/en/20200930-hungary-students-dig-in-at-blockade-for-academic-freedom

 

October 1 –  Taipei Times

https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2020/10/01/2003744425?fbclid=IwAR1hYmLcrZNs2Fh04D0LDd2-zCp_Wrowayx3d10bWkFBjyfHStcClMJkcmg

 

October 5 – SZ.de

https://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/hochschul-streik-in-budapest-der-kanzler-soll-draussen-bleiben-1.5054824?fbclid=IwAR08uRBVQ9Rg9jwiS0nqHj9dLP8UuAEn-0fN3d5sadFciWKczuRvtLNV40o

 

October 11 – Autocracy Analyst

https://autocracyanalyst.net/david-takes-on-goliath-struggle-for-academic-freedom-in-hungary/?fbclid=IwAR3HQAAuaoZXMfa4CEWJrBOdNBmZGW3LHnRSkv_v2spGhSICWLvmyu_Q-nY

 

October 13 – Die Presse

https://www.diepresse.com/5881584/die-jungen-helden-von-budapest?fbclid=IwAR1Z4cXkd6TjiYdnwIyEP_BnaOg9kBPVxoKgbKiteN42JmuxBapGaePadeA

 

October 13 – Foreign Policy

Orban’s Macbeth

 

October 15 – Insight Hungary

https://insighthungary.444.hu/2020/10/15/military-colonel-shuts-down-internet-at-arts-university-campus-amid-ongoing-student-occupation

 

October 16 – Agence France Presse

https://www.barrons.com/news/university-blockade-standoff-escalates-in-hungary-01602855304

 

October 16 – SZ.de

https://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/ungarn-abschalten-und-gleichschalten-1.5075214?fbclid=IwAR2PmZ9iRK4T2z9oT5M17VvSwX9HNWC957_dYN5Pz26R8BQnsUVrwJrPcFQ

 

October 17 (updated on November 17) – Telex

https://telex.hu/english/2020/10/17/internet-is-permanently-shutdown-at-main-buildings-of-prestigious-arts-university-in-budapest-while-students-protest

 

October 17 – Daily News Hungary

https://dailynewshungary.com/students-blockading-drama-university-campus-refuse-to-leave/?fbclid=IwAR3s_M5odnjTYzQNE5rwxi1oaOldac1p8RN6OCCCWR_qxkGBebF48f9yC58

 

FIRST EXPRESSIONS OF SUPPORT TO THE MOVEMENT

 

#freeSZFE on Social Media

 

The European Film Academy

https://www.europeanfilmacademy.org/News-detail.155.0.html?&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=810&cHash=9708c141703b8240bbd1a0fc933636ef&fbclid=IwAR2rwQ8DkKs1pXyIoy4BIjV-3PU2PYcD9WLkTaie9_cyBkEgg_k3977hmqI

 

MDW – Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien

https://www.mdw.ac.at/1161/?fbclid=IwAR2rwQ8DkKs1pXyIoy4BIjV-3PU2PYcD9WLkTaie9_cyBkEgg_k3977hmqI

 

Burgtheater

https://www.facebook.com/Burgtheater/

 

And many more.

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U2R – Union des réalisatrices et réalisateurs

contactu2r@orange.fr

https://www.union2r.fr

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Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques (SACD)

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Picture: Courtesy of Unknown

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

photo by Sašo Štih

Photo by Sašo Štih

Klemen Dvornik

Chairman

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.

Picture: Courtesy of Unknown

Bill Anderson

ExCo Member

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).

Picture: Courtesy of Unknown

Elisabet Gustafsson

ExCo co-opted Member

Swedish Film Directors, Sweden

Film director and scriptwriter, travels between Paris and Stockholm. At the moment, she’s working with a documentary shot in Mali and a short film about a guinea pig that disappeared in a parachute.

Picture: Courtesy of Unknown

Hrvoje Hribar

ExCo co-opted Member

DHFR / Croatian Film Directors’ Guild, Croatia

Born in Zagreb, Croatia, Hrvoje Hribar graduated in film directing from ADU (Academy of Dramatic Arts) in Zagreb. He has worked as a first assistant director, screenwriter, radio playwright, cook and essayist, contributing to the Croatian film Encyclopedia, Radio 101, Novi Prolog and Gordogan. He produced and directed the comedy What is a Man without a Moustache?, the highest grossing film at Croatian box office in the first decade of the Century, which was shown in more than 30 international film festivals. Prior to that, he also wrote, directed and produced two documentaries (The World is Great and Once there was a Man), as well as his first feature The Tranquilizer Gun. As a director and a scriptwriter, Hrvoje is also the author of Croatian Cathedrals (television film produced by HRT, Croatian public broadcaster) and the short film Between Zaghlul & Zaharias (produced by Tuna-film).

In 2001, he directed the TV series New Age for Croatian Radio-television (HRT). He was awarded the Oktavijan (Best Croatian film of the year) several times (for the feature Tranquiliser Gun, the documentary Once there was the man and the short Between Z&Z). Since November 2010, Hrvoje has been serving as a member of the Executive Committee of FERA. In September 2010 he was appointed Chief Executive of the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, the main audiovisual agency in Croatia, which he left February 2017.

Picture: Courtesy of Unknown

Lou Jeunet

ExCo Member

Groupe 25 Images, France

Former student at Femis, Lou co-wrote and directed four TV fictions, and a TV web series in 2011. In parallel of her filmmaker career, she teaches script writing and filmmaking at University. In 2017, Lou wrote and directed her first feature film Curiosa (produced by Curiosa Films, Olivier Delbosc, Canal +, l’Avance sur Recette, and distributed by Memento Films – release early 2019), with Noémie Merlant, Niels Schneider, Benjamin Lavernhe, Camélia Jordana, Amira Casar…).

Picture: Courtesy of Unknown

Alberto Simone

ExCo co-opted Member

100autori, Italy

Alberto Simone is an established multi-award winner film writer, director and producer whose solid career spans more than 20 years within the world of Entertainment including Theater, Music, Television, Advertising, Documentary and Cinema. His first movie “Colpo di Luna (Moon Shadow) was selected in competition at the 45th Berlin Film Festival, winning the “Jury Special Mention”. It also won the “Golden Globe of Foreing Press in Italy” for ‘Best Italian Director’ as well as other International Awards among which the “Coupe o Cour du Jury” at the Paris Film Festival in 1996.

Afterwards, he realised some of the most successful TV Movies and TV Series of the last years winning a number of awards and nominations.

In 2016 he wrote “The Italian Recipe” a film specifically conceived for the China market. The Script received the First Prize by Italian Culture Ministry and it will be the next official co-production between Italy and China. Afterwords, the movie happened to be the first official Italian Chinese co-production.

In 2017 he wrote a new original TV Series “Sins”, a very provocative and outrageous TV Series about secret and guilt that will be developed and produced in Canada in 2020.

In 2018 and 2019 he wrote and published 2 books in Italy, become Best Sellers. Along with a script for the US market “A family Flaw”, US remake of is previous Italian TV movie “Un difetto di famiglia”.

In 2020 the shooting of The Italian Recipe, directed by Chinese director Zuxin Huo, started in Italy and will be completed in China in March 2020.

in the meantime, the US production “Salome” started the development of his screenplay “A family Flaw“.

Picture: Courtesy of Unknown

Birgitte Stærmose

ExCo Member

Danish Film Directors, Denmark

Early award-winning shorts screened at prestigious festivals (Sundance, New Directors/New Films, Berlin, Rotterdam) and earned her twice the EFA Best Short Film nomination, as well as awards at Berlin, Rotterdam, Melbourne IFF, Stockholm IFF, Dokufest and Danish Academy Award for Best Documentary for Out of Love. Her debut feature, Room 304 premiered internationally in the main competition at Karlovy Vary IFF, where it was awarded for the score and was released in cinemas across the country. She is also the co-writer on the feature film, The Idealist (dir. Christina Rosendahl).

Stærmose has in 2015 directed three episodes of the Danish TV2 drama series Norskov airing in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the UK, the Benelux countries and the US. Her second feature, Darling, a drama set in the Royal Danish Ballet written by Kim Fupz Aakeson and produced by Peter Ålbæk of Zentropa Productions starring Danica Curcic, Gustaf Skarsgård and Ulrich Thomsen screened in Danish cinemas during the fall of 2017 and had its international world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival 2017. Danica Curcic was nominated as best actress by the Danish Film Academy as well as for the Bodil awarded by the Danish Film Critics.

Stærmose has directed the first two episodes of the international Starz mini-series The Spanish Princess, a period drama about Catherine of Aragon’s arrival to England in 1501. The series was released globally in May of 2019. She is currently lead director on the Julian Fellowes (Downton Abby) Netflix show The English Game – a period drama about the origins of professional football to be released as a Netflix Original Series in 2020.

Stærmose has been on the board of Danish Film Directors for over 10 years, and she is on her second term as FERA EC member.

Picture: Courtesy of Unknown

C. Cay Wesnigk

ExCo Member

AG DOK, Germany

C. Cay Wesnigk studied visual communication at the University of Arts in Hamburg. 1987 he founded the CCW Counter Clockwise Filmproduktion. Since then he has written, directed and/or produced several feature length and short films. These have all been shown on television, some also have been distributed in cinemas and some also in the video home market. Most of Wesnigks films have been shown and some even have been awarded on festivals all over the world. You can find a list of his films, as well as trailers and downloads and more information on his work http://www.onlinefilm.org/en_EN/community/4878

In 2000, together with 120 other producers, directors and authors he founded the OnlineFILM AG as a public company to use digital technologies for the distribution of audiovisual content. He has worked as CEO of OnlineFILM AG since then, today over 800 films are available to be purchased for download and stream internationally (www.onlinefilm.org).

Wesnigk is active member on the board of AG DOK, Germany’s largest community of independent directors and producers (900 members) (www.agdok.de). And also, board member of VG Bild-Kunst, the German collecting agency for creative Artists and Producers of films (www.bild-kunst.de). In 2008 together with Volker Barth he founded AnthroMedia GbR a company to produce documentaries on science, society and history ( www.anthro-media.com). Through  the production of two feature lenght compilation films ( topic nazi Germany and east Germany) and several  DocuFiction movies on the ealry west Germany he has started a collection of Amateur fims and has amassed a collection that spans form the late 1920s till the late 1980s. With his company “CCW Fim Archive” he offers this material to be used in new films or as research material for historic films.

In 2019 he produced the Film “SAZ – the key of trust” by newcomer director Stephan Talneau. It premiered in April at the Istanbul Filmfestival and is curently in the festival circuit and seeking distribution. The TV Version was broadcasted on ARTE in April 2019.

Films by C. Cay Wesnigk (Selection): VERGESSEN SIE ́S (Spielfilm, ZDF Das kleine Fernsehspiel 1987); VIER WÄNDE, EINE DEUTSCHE EINHEIT (Dokumentarspiel, 1990, mit Dominique Horowitz, Glashaus – Preis der IG-Medien; KINDER, KADER, KOMMANDEURE (Kompilationsfilm, 1991/92, Idee / Produktion, Regie: Wolfgang Kissel); IM BUS, IN DER FUSSGÄNGERZONE, IN DER KNEIPE, IM ZUG (Kinospots gegen Rassismus und Gewalt, 1993- 97, Buch / Regie); LUX ET UMBRA (Experimentalfilm, 1996, mit Adolf Bollmann); KÖNNTEN SIE SICH VORSTELLEN (1997, Kurzfilm); GLETSCHER – FIEBERTHERMOMETER DER ERDE (wissenschaftliches Feature, ARTE/NDR 1997); DAS VERMÄCHTNIS DES JENS KLIPPER (mit Adolf Bollmann, Kurzfilm, 1998); BALL-SPIEL (Kinder- Kurzfilm, Regie, ZDF 1998); ANTONIA LÄSST SICH OHRLÖCHER SCHIEßEN (Kinder- Kurzfilm, Regie, ZDF 2000); CARL F.W. BORGWARD, AUFSTIEG UND FALL EINES AUTOKÖNIGS Regie (Buch Jörg Komorowski, Dokumentarspiel ARD/NDR 2001); HITLERS HITPARADE, Produktion, (Regie Oliver Axer und Susanne Benze) Kompilationsfilm, ZDF ARTE 2004, Premiere IDFA 2003, Grimme Preis 2004; DIE ERBEN, Coproduktion mit Allcom Film und AV GmbH 4 teilige Serie mit Filmen über Gloria von Thurn und Taxis (Buch u. Regie, Christian Weisenborn),.Christina Onassis, Buch u. Regie Andrea Morgenthaler) Hubert Burda (Buch u. Regie Kathrin Pitterling) und Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips (Buch Jörg Komorowski, Regie C. Cay Wesnigk) für NDR/ ARD 2007; SAZ – the Key of Trust (directed by Stephan Talneau, produced by C. Cay Wesnigk) for Anthro Media and ARTE/ZDF 2019 FESTIVALTEILNAHMEN: (Selection) Berlinale , Hamburg , Dresden, Leipzig Saarbrücken , St.Petersburg , Hiroshima Bratislava ,Chikago ,Hyderabad IDFA Amsterdam, Istanbul FF Preise: Diverse Prädikate “Besonders Wertvoll”; Glashauspreis der IG Medien für “VIER WÄNDE ” mit dem Autoren Rainer Jogschies; Ernst Schneider Preis für Wirtschaftsjournalisten 2003 für “Carl F. W. Borgward- Aufstieg und Fall eines Autokönigs” zusammen mit dem Autoren Jörg Komorowski; Grimme Preis 2004 für die Produktion Hitlers Hitparade.

Picture: Courtesy of Unknown

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 prize- winning productions (including a Rose d’Or, Webby Award and EMEA SABRE Award), often with an innovative and/or online component.

Shorts, web series, drama series, documentaries and features. Former board member and chairman of the Dutch Directors Guild for 7 years, currently board member of FERA, member of ADCN, EFA and on the Advisory Board of the VU University Amsterdam, department of Arts and Cultural Sciences.

Picture: Courtesy of Unknown

Lenuţa Berinde

Office & Communications Manager

Originally from northern Romania, Lenuţa is currently based in Brussels and works as FERA Communications and Office Manager. She started working at FERA in 2018. She has previously worked as DG COMM Schuman Trainee at the EU Parliament, as well as in various international film festivals. Lenuța is passionate about cinema, art and media, and holds an MA in Cinema Studies from Stockholm University.

Picture: Courtesy of Unknown

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.

Picture: Courtesy of Unknown

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.

Picture: Courtesy of Unknown

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.

Picture: Courtesy of Unknown

Sverre Pedersen

Honorary Treasurer

Norwegian Film Makers Association, Norway

Sverre Pedersen has worked in the film and television industry since 1984. He has directed and produced several short films, music videos, commissioned films, TV dramas and one feature film. Though, it is documentary films which has been his main area in film production.

He has made a large number of socially committed documentaries with a focus on international solidarity, nature and culture, cultural heritage, anti-war and anti-racism.

In 2005 he was elected President of the Norwegian Film Makers Association and for 15 years he has worked primarily with film policies, collective bargaining, conflict resolution, copyright and other areas that fell under his responsibility in the Film Makers Association.

Now he is working as Campaign and Advocacy Manager in Freemuse, fighting for persecuted and imprisoned artists throughout the world.

The Civil Society of Multimedia Authors (SCAM)

pole.auteurs@scam.fr

http://www.scam.fr/EN

Norske Filmregissører (NFR)

nfr@filmdir.no

www.filmdir.no

Norwegian Film Makers Association (NFF)

post@filmforbundet.no

www.filmforbundet.no

Associazione Nazionale Autori Cinematografici (ANAC)

anac@anac-autori.it

www.anac-autori.it

100 Autori

coordinamento@100autori.it

www.100autori.it

Greek Film Directors and Producers Guild (ESPEK)

espek2@gmail.com

https://espek1.wordpress.com/

Greek Directors’ Guild

ees@ath.forthnet.gr

http://www.greekdirectorsguild.gr/

Directors Guild of Germany – Film & TV Directors Guild (BVR)

info@regieverband.de

www.regieverband.de

German Documentary Association (AG DOK)

agdok@agdok.de

www.agdok.de

Society of Film Directors (SRF)

contact@la-srf.fr

www.la-srf.fr

Verband Filmregie Österreich (Austrian Directors Guild)

office@austrian-directors.com

http://www.austrian-directors.com

Unie van Regisseurs (UvR)

info@unievanregisseurs.be

www.unievanregisseurs.be

Association of Film Directors (ARRF)

info@arrf.be

www.arrf.be

Directors Guild of America (DGA)

dgawebsupport@dga.org

www.dga.org

Collecting Society of Authors, Performers and Film Producers of Audiovisual works of Slovenia (AIPA, k. o.)

info@aipa.si

www.aipa.si

Dacin Sara

office@dacinsara.ro

www.dacinsara.ro

F©R – Filmforbundets Organisasjon for Rettighetsforvaltning

medlem@filmforbundet.no

www.filmforbundet.no

Israel Directors Guild

info@directorsguild.org.il

http://directorsguild.org.il/english/

Society For The Protection Of Audio-Visual Authors’ And Producers’ Rights (FILMJUS)

fj@filmjus.hu

www.filmjus.hu

Directors UK

info@directors.uk.com

www.directors.uk.com

Swiss Filmmakers Association (ARF/FDS)

info@arf-fds.ch

www.arf-fds.ch

Directors Guild of Slovenia (DSR)

info@dsr.si

www.dsr.si

Serbian Film Directors Association (AFRS)

darkolun@gmail.com

Polish Filmmakers Association (SFP)

biuro@sfp.org.pl

www.sfp.org.pl

Macedonian Film Professional’s Association

contact@dfrm.org.mk

www.dfrm.org.mk

Dutch Directors Guild (DDG)

info@directorsguild.nl

www.directorsguild.nl

Producers and Directors of Montenegro

office@ufpr.me

www.afpd.me

Luxembourgish Association of Filmmakers and Scriptwriters (LARS)

www.lars.lu

Lithuanian Filmmakers Union (SKL)

lks@kinosajunga.lt

www.kinosajunga.lt

Latvian Filmmakers Union (LFU/LKS)

info@kinosavieniba.lv

www.kinosavieniba.lv

Guild of Icelandic Film Directors (SKL)

skl-filmdirectors@gmail.com

www.skl-filmdirectors.net

Guild of Icelandic Film Directors (SKL)

skl-filmdirectors@gmail.com

www.skl-filmdirectors.net

Association of Hungarian Film Directors (AHD)

Association of Finnish Film Directors (SELO ry)

info@selo.fi

www.selo.fi

Estonian Filmmakers Union

kinoliit@kinoliit.ee

www.kinoliit.ee

Danish Film Directors

mail@filmdir.dk

www.filmdir.dk

Association of Czech Directors and Screenwriters (ARAS)

info@aras.cz

www.aras.cz

Directors Guild of Cyprus

directorsguildcy@gmail.com.cy

www.cyprusdirectors.com

Croatian Film Directors Guild (DHFR)

dhfr@dhfr.hr

www.dhfr.hr

Union of Bulgarian Film Makers (UBFM)

sbfd@sbfd-bg.com

www.filmmakersbg.org/ubfm-eng.htm

Directors Guild of Bosnia and Herzegovina

urirubih@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/urirubih/

Film Director Guild of Azerbaijan (AZDG)

info@audiovisual.az

www.audiovisual.az

Austrian Director’s Association (ADA)

office@ada-directors.com

www.ada-directors.com