Ken Loach and Małgorzata Szumowska Act As Patrons of young filmmakers recruitment at EFA

At the 52nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival the European Film Academy (EFA) has launched a campaign to invite young filmmakers to become voting members of the EFA. „We want to encourage our young colleagues to actively take part in our Academy community and activities. We need their inspiration and expertise to bring the Academy into the next decade,“ says Agnieszka Holland, Chairwoman of the EFA Board. „The future is theirs and they are the future – only together will we be able to protect and develop our art and industry which will be undergoing fundamental changes in the years to come.“ 

The campaign under the aegis of film directors Ken Loach (UK) and Małgorzata Szumowska (Poland) has been designed on the occasion of the 30th European Film Awards, which will take place in Berlin on Saturday, 9 December 2017.

Ken Loach underlines his engagement with the need for young filmmakers to take responsibility: „Being a filmmaker means to take responsibility. Our films enable us to raise our voices for freedom, justice and solidarity. We are stronger as a group than as individuals. The European Film Academy is a community where we can support each other and, when necessary, show solidarity in the face of persecution. The Academy should stand for the interests of the people against the dominance of big corporations or oppressive states. I hope all filmmakers will join and be active members of the Academy. It is the expression of collective traditions and our determination to keep our cinema alive.” 

Małgorzata Szumowska addresses herself especially to young female film professionals: „It is very important that the young generation of filmmakers engages itself for the future of cinema and of our societies. And I want to especially encourage my female colleagues: The more we are, the stronger we will be! We can only strengthen our position in the cinema universe if we take our destiny in our hands. EFA is a good platform for doing this.” 

Young film professionals who want to join the 3,200 members of the European Film Academy must be European* filmmakers under 36 years of age. They must have worked on at least one feature-length film (fiction, animation or documentary) and the film must have had an official screening in a regular, international section of a competitive FIAPF-accredited European film festival or been nominated by a national film academy. All applications have to be supported by one EFA Member. 

For a reduced membership fee they will get full voting rights for the European Film Awards including exclusive access to the EFA VOD Platform with approx. 100 films per year. As EFA Members, they will also get voting rights for the EFA Board.

* European, in the sense of the European Film Academy, means geographical Europe, both EU and non-EU, and shall include Israeli and Palestinian.