FERA info

Newsletter – June 2010

admin — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 12:32:17 +0000

FERA Newsletter dedicated to the month of June is available at:

FERA Newsletter #26 June 2010

100 Autori on the State of Italian Cinema

admin — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 08:59:45 +0000

2010 Italian cinema year has been marked by 3D movies and important auteur films loved by the general public and directed by authors such as Gabriele Salvatores, Carlo Verdone, Ferzan Ozpetek, and Paolo Virzì.

A few weeks ago Elio Germano received the award as Best Actor for his role in La Nostra Vita at the 63^rd Cannes Film Festival. Nonetheless 100 Autori cannot ignore the fact that for the first time, in 2009, Italian film companies got loss ratio: the closings have been more than the openings.

The number of movies produced has also dropped: 131 films were totally produced, 14.9% less than the previous year. This is caused by the constant reduction of the financial support of the FUS (Fondo Unico per lo Spettacolo).

In the past few weeks 100 Autori has denounced such a situation; in 2008 €11m were assigned for each four-month period by the FUS, in 2009 the sum dropped to €8m and nowadays, in 2010, the board supposed to allocate the funds finds itself with absolutely no funds to assign.

There have been many conjectures on the possibility to take €20m off the Government presidency fund for natural emergencies (Fondo della Presidenza del Consiglio per le emergenze naturali) to have at least €5m to allocate each four-month, but still nothing has changed.

100 Autori wrote a letter disapproving the whole situation, a letter which was read during the ceremony of the National film award “David di Donatello”.
Despite the statements made by the David’s winners on the bad state of FUS funds appearing in the national news, the appeals were ignored by the Government.

On 7 June, a manifestation against the cuts to Culture took place in Piazza Navona in Rome. Directors, authors, artists from different backgrounds (theatre, music, cinema) participated in the demonstration, which was organised by all the trade unions and 100 Autori.

100 Autori Website (in IT):

http://www.100autori.it/

French SRF elects New President and Board

admin — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 08:58:14 +0000

The French Society of Film Directors held the annual General Assembly on 12 June and elected the Presidents and the new Executive Committee for the year 2010/2011.

The three new SRF Co-Presidents are Fabrice Genestal, Chantal Richard and Christophe Ruggia.

The Executive Committee includes Eric Guirado (Secretary), Michel Andrieu (Treasury), Oriane Polack (in charge of short films), Denis Gheerbrant (in charge of documentary). Other members are Isabelle Broué, Malik Chibane, Hicham Falah, Agnès Jaoui, Pascale Krief, Pierre Lacan, Gilles Porte, Bruno Rolland, Pierre Salvadori, Marianne Visier and Anne Zinn-Justin.

SRF Website (in FR):

http://www.la-srf.fr

The Union of Bulgarian Filmmakers elected New President

admin — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 08:57:05 +0000

On 21 May, the Union of Bulgarian Filmmakers (UBFM) has elected Gueorgui Stoyanov as its new President.

Gueorgui Stoyanov, who succeeds Ivan Pavlov, is a prominent film director of feature films and several documentaries as well as a public figure. Mr Stoyanov has been Deputy Chairman of Bulgarian National Television, Deputy Minister of Culture, and Counselor of Culture at the Embassy of Bulgaria in Washington, USA.

This is his second mandate after having also been UBFM President in 1992.

UBFM website (in BG):

http://www.filmmakersbg.org/president-eng.htm

Directors UK announces new CEO

admin — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 08:55:53 +0000

Directors UK announces the appointment of Andrew Chowns as its new CEO

Andrew Chowns is currently Chief Operating Officer and Director of Business Affairs at PACT. Andrew was previously Commercial Director of ITV2 and Controller of Legal and Business Affairs at ITV Network. He will be joining Directors UK on 1^st September 2010.

Andrew joins Directors UK from PACT, the UK trade association representing and promoting the commercial interests of independent feature film, television, digital, children’s and animation media companies. In his role as Chief Operating Officer and Director of Business Affairs, Andrew Chowns was responsible for overseeing the terms of trade with broadcasters, negotiations with unions and collecting societies and other major business affairs matters.

Andrew replaces Suzan Dormer who was CEO of both Directors UK and before it the Directors and Producers Rights Society (DPRS).

Press Release available on Directors UK website:

http://www.directors.uk.com/images/DirectorsUK/pdf/ceo.pdf

Newsletter – May 2010

admin — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:00:56 +0000

FERA Newsletter dedicated to the month of May is now available at:

FERA Newsletter #25 May 2010

Directors UK responds to the BBC Strategy Review

admin — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 13:56:48 +0000

Directors UK has sent its submission to the BBC Strategy Review consultation urging to reverse the planned 5% annual cut in production expenditure and asking the BBC to engage more with the creative communities.

In its submission, Directors UK insisted on the necessity for BBC to have a partnership with directors and writers who are “the BBC’s natural allies and recognise the need for a strong and independent BBC”. In its statement, Directors UK declared to “share the same desire to produce the very finest programmes possible within the available resources”.

Directors UK website:

http://www.directors.uk.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=546&Itemid=17

Full response to BBC Strategy Review:

http://www.directors.uk.com/images/DirectorsUK/pdf/bbcsr.pdf