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Advocacy, Artistic Freedom, News, Report

Freemuse publishes its 2025 State of Artistic Freedom report

29 April 2025

Freemuse is an independent, international, non-governmental organisation that advocates for freedom of artistic expression and cultural diversity. Each year, Freemuse publishes a report on the state of artistic freedom, compiling it in collaboration with a global network of organisations that monitor artistic freedom in their regions and individual experts.

The year 2024 was marked by global turmoil, with ongoing wars in Gaza and Ukraine, overshadowing other conflicts. Data shows that artists worldwide faced severe repression: censorship, arrests, imprisonment, and even death, especially in authoritarian countries. Women, LGBTQ+ community, and minorities were specifically targeted in conservative and theocratic regimes.

The report states that freedom of expression has come under threat in democratic countries as well, with the Gaza war resulting in censorship and event cancellations in places like Germany and the USA. Satirists and outspoken artists faced backlash, and fear of reprisal led to widespread self-censorship across the arts sector.

Nevertheless, artists showed remarkable resilience, continuing to create despite the oppressive conditions. There were also positive developments, including in relation to unexpected developments such as the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in Syria or a government shift in Poland, and initiatives to improve freedom of expression in Zimbabwe and Brazil.

The report finds that in 2024, the most targeted artforms were film and music, with widespread instances of arrests, censorship, cancelled festivals and performances, works removed from streaming services, and discriminatory permit refusals.

The 2025 State of Artistic Freedom report concludes with a set of recommendations: Freemuse calls on governments to protect freedom of artistic expression, end censorship, and strengthen their cultural sectors. The organisation also urges cultural institutions to continue their advocacy efforts.

To go further

Read and download full report: https://www.freemuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/SAF-2025_web.pdf

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  • FERA participates in annual European webinar on gender equality statistics and strategies in audiovisual production
  • FERA partners in exclusive EFAD screening of “Mr Nobody Against Putin” by David Borenstein & Pavel Talankin

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Rue du Prince Royal 85-87
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office@filmdirectors.eu

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Guilde des Auteurs Réalisateurs de Reportages et Documentaires/ GARRD

http://www.garrd.fr

Tél. 07 85 64 10 81

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

info@acciondirectores.com

acciondirectores.com

The Civil Society of Multimedia Authors (SCAM)

pole.auteurs@scam.fr

http://www.scam.fr/EN

The Norwegian Guild of Directors (NFR)

nfr@filmdir.no

www.filmdir.no

Associazione Nazionale Autori Cinematografici (ANAC)

anac@anac-autori.it

www.anac-autori.it

 

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Twitter: @ANACautori

YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/ANAClive

Greek Film Directors and Producers Guild (ESPEK)

espek2@gmail.com

https://espek1.wordpress.com/

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

info@regieverband.de

www.regieverband.de

Society of Film Directors (SRF)

contact@la-srf.fr

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Unie van Regisseurs (UvR)

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Verband Filmregie Österreich (Austrian Directors Guild)

office@austrian-directors.com

http://www.austrian-directors.com​

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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 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.

Picture: Courtesy of Unknown

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

Picture: Courtesy of Unknown

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.

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 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.

Picture: Courtesy of Unknown

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.

Picture: Courtesy of Unknown

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

Picture: Courtesy of Unknown

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.

Picture: Courtesy of Unknown

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

Directors Guild of America (DGA)

dgawebsupport@dga.org

www.dga.org

Rättighetsbolaget /Fackförbundet Scen & Film

info@scenochfilm.se

https://scenochfilm.se

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

Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques (SACD)

www.sacd.fr

Directors UK

info@directors.uk.com

www.directors.uk.com

Swiss Filmmakers Association (ARF/FDS)

info@arf-fds.ch

www.arf-fds.ch

Swedish Film Directors (SFR)/Fackförbundet Scen & Film

info@scenochfilm.se

https://scenochfilm.se

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

Norwegian Film Makers Association (NFF)

post@filmforbundet.no

www.filmforbundet.no

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

100 Autori

coordinamento@100autori.it

www.100autori.it


     Screen Directors Guild of Ireland

hello@sdgi.ie

https://www.sdgi.ie/

Guild of Icelandic Film Directors (SKL)

skl-filmdirectors@gmail.com

www.skl-filmdirectors.net

Association of Hungarian Film Directors (AHD)

Greek Directors’ Guild

ees@ath.forthnet.gr

http://www.greekdirectorsguild.gr/

German Documentary Association (AG DOK)

agdok@agdok.de

www.agdok.de

U2R – Union des réalisatrices et réalisateurs

contactu2r@orange.fr

https://www.union2r.fr

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/

 

 

Association of Film Directors (ARRF)

info@arrf.be

www.arrf.be

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

Courtesy of unknown

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).